Finally Breathe
by noemi1225
Summary: During a mysterious mission Sting meets a strange girl and falls for her instantly. As time goes on, their paths cross more often, giving Sting opportunity to win her heart, discover her past and fight her demons away. Sting/OC, slow-build.
1. In Plain Sight

**Chapter 1**

 **In Plain Sight**

Messengers were sent to most of the major guilds in Fiore with a particularly important and well-paying job. All guild masters were asked to send as many wizards to a certain aristocrat's mansion in order to protect him from some great evil as possible. Given that they can protect him, each participating guild should receive a massive amount of jewels. It was not an extraordinary thing to do, asking wizards to protect wealthy people travelling through dangerous cities or forests, babysitting their kids while they had meetings and other things to attend. But this didn't seem like the usual 'help me protect my money cause I'm rich' type of mission. Still, maybe because of the possible danger, not many guilds responded and even less showed up at the mansion: Ichiya and the Trimens from Blue Pegasus, Kagura and Milliana from Mermaid Heel, Jura from Lamia Scale, the Dragon Slayer duo of Sabertooth with their exceeds, and obviously Team Natsu from Fairy Tail.

The mansion was built in a huge parcel with a pond, a small forest, statues and a freaking hedge labyrinth Natsu, Gray and Sting seemed to fancy. The mansion was not too far from the outskirts of Magnolia, but every attendant decided to use the train to get there as soon as possible. Thankfully, the short walk from the train station to their destination helped the dragon slayers clear their heads and concentrate on the mission. All of them were greeted by the butler. He was a rather tall guy with a small moustache and short brown hair. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He had the typical penguin outfit on, as it was pointed out by Natsu. He briefly explained the situation to everyone on the way to the lounge where they were to meet their current employer, who he referred to as Mr. A.

"Long story short" explained the butler, "Mr. A is a very important businessman and because of the success of his latest project, many of his business partners became envious and rather hostile toward him. He wishes to ask for your help for a couple of days until he can leave the country under the protection of the Magic Council."

"Your master's message sounded rather serious. In contrast, you make it sound like a simple body guarding mission" commented Kagura.

"Please, have a seat" smiled the butler slyly opening the door to the lounge. "I'll inform Mr. A about your arrival." With that, he walked out of the room closing the doors behind.

"I already hate him" stated Gray as he walked around examining the weird paintings and statues.

Jura was the only one who decided to settle in one of the bigger couches, everyone else was standing or walking around the room. Milliana started talking to the Sabertooth exceeds while Sting murmured something to Rogue. Kagura, Erza and Lucy tried their best to stay as far from Ichiya and his gang as possible. Wendy and Carla watched curiously what Natsu and Happy were up to this time.

"Hey, Happy! Look at this picture! I bet you can draw better with your tail" mocked Natsu one of the paintings.

"You should appreciate the value of these paintings more, Natsu. These are delicate artworks, just like a nice perfume" said Ichiya between sniffs, getting dangerously close to Erza.

"That butler's very suspicious" said Kagura.

"Do you think they're up to something?" asked Erza from Kagura while trying hard not to break some expensive decoration on Ichiya's head.

"Not sure" Kagura mumbled. She looked at Jura expecting some kind of response, but he didn't seem to be interested in sharing his thoughts.

"Let's wait and see what Mr. A has to say" said Rogue resting his back to a nearby column, watching the exceeds and Milliana messing with one of the carpets with strange patterns on.

"I don't care what grunts or monsters are coming, I'm gonna beat their asses to the ground!" shouted Natsu jumping on a small coffee table that almost instantly broke under his weight.

Everyone stared at him in horror and the second Erza started to go towards him, possibly to give him a good beating, Mr. A and the butler entered the room laughing at the scene. That obviously calmed everyone's nerves a bit. Mr. A looked like he was the most average and most typical middle-aged aristocrat ever. Middle height, puffy cheeks, big belly, wearing fancy jewellery and clearly expensive clothes and shoes, weird hairstyle with an astonishing amount of gel in it.

"I like your attitude, boy" he said. "That's the kind of men I'm looking for. Strong, fierce, without fear."

"That's Natsu for you!" cheered Happy.

"And what is it you don't want us to fear, Mr. A?" asked Jura, earning everyone's attention in the room.

Mr. A turned his head in Jura's direction as his smile slowly disappeared. He signalled the butler to leave the room as he took a seat in a large armchair.

"I've been working in the building industry for many years, my friends" Mr. A started. "Made numerous friends and enemies along the way. You know, this industry has its own dangers just like every other. People like me have their lives threatened several times every week, thieves are often hired to steal new plans and products. Such things are part of this business and I knew this when I started accepting construction and building jobs. But never have I faced such evil as I do now."

Seeing the pain and fear in Mr A's eyes, everyone knew that this is a job that requires all their strength and seriousness, even the little exceeds looked troubled and tried to concentrate on what the man has to say. Sting looked at Rogue who seemed to be somewhat immersed in his thoughts while keeping his eyes on their employer.

"Do you know, who the enemy is?" asked Jura.

"Well, that question's hard to answer. You see, all I know is that during one of my recent jobs, details of which I'm afraid I am not authorised to share with you, I angered some very powerful people in southern Ishgar. And these people hired a mighty, fearsome warrior. A mercenary. I've been travelling continuously for the past few weeks, trying to get away, but despite all my efforts, he always seems to find me. Thankfully, I'm always one step ahead. But only one. After I leave a certain location, this… this monster shows up and all that's left after his arrival, is destruction. Death is slowly following me, creeping up on me."

The shock and anger in the mages' faces were apparent as the man continued his story.

"I'm tired of being afraid. I'm tired of running" he said as he stood up and sternly looked around the room. "That's why I ask you to use me as a bait. If I'm here, he'll surely come here. And when he does, eliminate him."

"You want us to kill this guy?" said Lucy.

"Isn't the Magic Council supposed to provide you protection, given the seriousness of this issue?" asked Kagura.

"They offered to send forces in four days. And I'm afraid, I would be dead by that time here on my own" he said slightly smiling. "That was all the information I can tell you for now. Obviously, you may still decide not to take the job. Coming here has no further… obligations. You may stay here for the night, no matter what your answer is. My butler will show you your rooms as soon as they're ready. I'll see you in the morning. Good night, my friends."

Silence fell on the room as Mr. A left. Everyone seemed to be thinking through what they just heard, sometimes looking at each other. No one really know how to react. Though, Natsu looked like he was ready to burst the whole mansion into flames, even he did not say a word. Sting noticed that Rogue was still wearing the same expression from the start of Mr. A's story, still looking at the door the man exited. When he noticed his partner focusing on his surroundings again, he closed his eyes, collected his thoughts and turning his head back to Rogue he finally spoke up.

"What did you find?"

The other mages turned to face the two dragon slayers, curious what Rogue had to say.

"Not sure" Rogue started. "I didn't have enough time to finish, this place is huge. But it seems nobody else is here. And there's something strange happening in the cellar. Don't really know what. And that butler…" he stopped for a bit and after a long blink he looked at Sting. "He's been standing in front of the door the whole time."

"Well, that's what he's supposed to do, isn't it?" asked Hibiki.

"What are you talking about?" asked Natsu, looking around the room to see if he's the only one not knowing what Sting and Rogue are talking about.

"Wait a minute, how do you know that?" asked Erza.

"I asked him to scan the mansion with his shadows while we listened to this Mr. A" explained Sting looking at Erza, then turning his gaze to Rogue. "What's up with the butler?"

"He's been standing in front of the door staring at nothing. He didn't even move an inch. Not sure he's been breathing at all."

"That's not possible" said Kagura.

"It is" said Jura calmly. "At least we've heard it is."

"We?" asked Gray.

"The Magic Council's been getting more and more reports about cases where after defeating or eliminating a certain enemy, no bodies can be found, only a huge amount of slowly fading magic power. It is believed to be a new technique an underground organisation uses to create warriors that are then sold to whoever bids the highest."

"So this Mr. A's got one" said Natsu making his way toward the door.

"And where exactly are you going, Flame-brain?" asked Gray mockingly.

"I'm gonna check him out!" laughed Natsu.

"No, you're not" said Erza as she quickly grabbed the end of his scarf stopping him.

"Being so secretive, going from terrified to self-sacrificing in mere seconds and now this… We should be extra careful" said Jura.

"So we're accepting the mission?" asked Eve.

"Doesn't sound like the wisest decision" started Sting. "But now I'm way too intrigued to back out."

"Yeah! Sabertooth never backs out!" shouted Lector.

"Well then, Fairy Tail's not gonna lose to any other guild" said Natsu grinning at Sting.

"Fierce as always" said Ichiya. "Mr. A can count on Blue Pegasus."

"What about the butler?" asked Milliana. "He's creeping me out."

"As for now, we should consider him our ally" Jura started. "But you can never know what might…"

Just as if he'd sensed them talking about him, the door opened and the butler came through smiling, telling them that their rooms may be occupied as soon as they are ready. They politely refused, saying that they still need to discuss several things related to the mission. As the butler started offering to take them to the dining area so they can have something for dinner, the doorbell rang.

"Is anyone else supposed to come beside us?" asked Jura.

"I was not informed about having further guests" started the butler with a vicious grin. "So it must be our delinquent. I suggest you brace yourselves for the upcoming fight, ladies and gentlemen" he said turning his back to the mages.

"Wait! What?" shouted Lucy. "Where are you going?"

The butler stopped, slowly turned around with that creepy grin on his face.

"To the door, Ma'am. My duty is to answer the door whenever the doorbell rings."


	2. Magic, Madness, Heaven, Sin

**Chapter 2.**

 **Magic, Madness, Heaven, Sin**

Astonished, they tried to mentally process the previous scene, while Jura quickly made up a plan to protect their client from the intruder. Well, technically being let in the house isn't really classified as intrusion. Given, that the butler gave him permission to come in. But that wasn't the main issue at that moment. Jura decided they should split into 3 teams, all of them acting as barriers between the attacker and Mr. A.

Team 1 included the men of Blue Pegasus, Team 2 consisted of Mermaid Heel and Lamia Scale, and finally Team 3, who were the ones actually protecting Mr. A was made up from Sabertooth and Fairy Tail members. Natsu was outraged that he couldn't just bash through the door and beat the crap out of that guy, but Jura's thorough explanation and Erza's super convincing threats made him behave himself.

Team 1's tasks were to follow the butler to the entrance to make sure he won't be caught up in the fight, given that he really needed any protection, and then return to their current location to join Team 2. They were not supposed to fight the intruder right away. In contrast with Mr. A's request, Jura thought that capturing the enemy rather than 'eliminating' him should be their top priority.

Team 2 was supposed to protect the entrance to the hallway Mr. A went through after their meeting, mainly using Jura's magic to block all doorways leading there. After either Team 1 or the perpetrator got to their location, they were supposed to stop and capture this guy.

As they didn't know the exact location of Mr. A, the dragon slayers of Team 3 had to follow the trail he left using their sensitive sense of smell. In case the intruder found another way to Mr. A's chambers or somehow defeated the combined forces of Team 1 and 2, Team 3 should've taken care of both the defence of Mr. A and the apprehension of the attacker. Given the various skills and abilities of the assembled team, this shouldn't be a problem.

After Jura sealed the doorway, Team 3 made its way to the location of their client. Just as Rogue said, this mansion was huge. They had to navigate through long and sometimes confusing corridors, hallways, even rooms to be able to follow Mr. A. It reminded Sting the hedge maze they got thorough to get to the mansion. Everyone was suspiciously quiet during their whole pathfinding, and finally Sting asked the question lingering in their minds.

"Have any of you noticed when that guy arrived?"

"I couldn't feel anyone coming" started Erza. "If he's really that strong, he should have enough magic power for us to feel it."

"Maybe he just conceals it. You do it all the time" said Carla.

"Yes, but making it completely undetectable is simply impossible. Maybe when there's more distance, but if the one ringing the doorbell was really him, we should've felt him coming" murmured Erza.

"He doesn't smell" stated Natsu with a serious expression.

"What are you talking about?" asked Gray.

"Umm… I think Natsu-san means that we can't identify his scent" explained Wendy. "Like we do it with Mr. A now."

"Even that strange butler has one" said Rogue. "But I still can't feel a new presence around."

"The butler seemed to be sure it's our guy" added Sting quietly.

"And what kind of assassin rings the doorbell? Why didn't he just sneak in or something? Not that it would've been a better situation for us…" wondered Lucy. "What is up with this guy?"

"He's really strong! That's what's up!" screamed Natsu. "I'm all fired up to beat his ass."

"Or he's just an idiot, like you are" said Gray.

"I think Natsu's right" said Erza. "If he simply comes through the front door alerting everyone that he's here, he must be sure he can defeat whoever guards this place."

"Or he's a vampire" said Happy. "Maybe he can only come in if you invite him in."

"Woaah! That's right!" shouted Natsu. "We can't feel him because he's already dead. And he came when the sun already set."

"A vampire assassin" screamed Happy.

"If he's dead, he should smell pretty bad. You should've been able to smell it, flame-brain" added Gray, trying to reason with Natsu and Happy.

"Is that really a vampire, Sting?" asked Lector.

"Whatever he is, we can defeat him together" said Sting smiling. He didn't really think the attacker was a vampire, but he didn't want to directly disagree with Natsu.

"Stop that! Vampires don't exist" said Lucy angrily.

"Vampire or not, he's strong. We have to be very cautious" said Erza.

"Why didn't you just tell him it's not a vampire?" wondered Lucy quietly.

They finally reached the hallway where Mr. A's smell lead the dragon slayers. There was a rather small door – compared to the others in the mansion – at the end of a dark hall.

"Well, Mr. A's scent disappears here" said Wendy.

"Why on earth did he come here? I thought he went to sleep or something" commented Gray.

"Let me guess" said Sting looking at Rogue.

"Yeah. That's the cellar door" said Rogue looking at the door.

There must've been some kind of magical seal on or around the door, because they couldn't feel neither their client's nor anyone else's presence in there. They could see a faint light escaping from behind the door along with a low humming noise.

"You've got to be kidding me" started Lucy. "There's no way I'm going in there."

"Creepy" said Happy.

"Fro thinks so."

"So we're just waiting here for this guy to come or what? I wanna kick some vampire butt" said Natsu grinning, flames already engulfing his fists.

"Stop with this vampire thing" said Gray angrily. "We should get in there, find Mr. A and tell him what's going on."

"I have a really bad feeling about this place" said Erza. "Here's the plan for now."

"I'll go and beat the crap out of that guy" shouted Natsu.

And with that, he started running back to the others left behind to fight the attacker himself, Happy following him closely and the others shouting at him to come back. Looking back at them he said something along the lines of 'It's gonna be fine' or something similar. As he turned his head forward, he saw a figure emerging from the darkness in front of him and a fist with glowing purple symbols connected with his face, sending him flying back to where the other Fairy Tail and Sabertooth members stood.

Shock swept through the mages seeing that Natsu was knocked out with one hit. Frosch and Lector hid behind Rogue, Lucy and Wendy ran to Natsu while the others braced themselves for the upcoming fight. Everyone, except Sting. He just stood there, dumbfounded. For some reason, he didn't want to fight. The attacker was right in front of him, Natsu was already knocked out but still, he didn't feel like they were under threat. He felt rather calm, peaceful, even. And he had a feeling that this guy wasn't here to fight with them, either. This… girl. That's right. This girl. She doesn't want to fight, she doesn't mean to hurt any of them. Then what the hell is she doing here?

"How is that even possible" said Gray, confused, looking at Natsu's lying figure.

"Be careful. We don't know what kind of power he…" started Erza.

"He's sleeping" exclaimed Wendy. "He's just sleeping."

"He's what?" screamed Erza and Lucy simultaneously as Natsu's loud snoring could finally be heard.

"You're not here to kill Mr. A, are you" stated Sting keeping his eyes on the stranger.

"Of course he is" shouted Mr. A as the cellar door opened.

The light from the cellar lit up the corridor, revealing a middle-height figure in a dark blue cloak, its hood covering the face of the attacker.

"The plan was a success. He fell into our trap. Now is your chance to get him" said Mr. A.

"Her" said Sting calmly.

The intruder turned her head toward Sting, the glowing symbols slowly disappearing from her fists.

"Her?" responded Lucy.

"What?" asked Mr. A. "I don't care if it's a man, a woman or some kid. Everyone who's threatening my life deserves to die. And you're here to kill this guy or girl or whatever for me."

"What are you saying?" asked Wendy.

"He's already murdered my butler and all your friends" insisted Mr. A. "Just kill him!"

"Her" stated Sting still eyeing the cloaked figure. "And I don't think she's killed anyone."

"No matter what she did or didn't do, we can't just kill her" commented Erza.

"Oh, yes, you can. And you will" said Mr. A as he pulled a glowing red stone out of his pocket. "Because using the power of this mind-controlling Blood Gem, I, Salvadore Amoratto will make all of you obey me."

Everyone turned to face him as he started laughing, holding the gem as high above his head as he could.

"I've spent so much time to finally make only one gem. Do you know how much blood I needed to get so I could create this? And getting all that expensive equipment and precious knowledge. Oh, that sweet, sweet knowledge" he whispered looking at the figure with twitching eyes. "None of you can imagine the things I know."

"What are you talking about?" asked Rogue.

"Blood?" asked Wendy. "But how did you…"

"Yeah. How exactly does one get blood? And what kind of blood, right? I wondered if it worked with animal blood, you know" he laughed. "Oh, how foolish I was. The first try was a catastrophe. I tried to make it using horse blood. Hah, can you imagine that? Horse blood?"

The maniac laughter of their client, or rather former client sent shivers down the mages' spines. And realising just what kind of man wanted to hire them to help him accomplish some kind of evil purposes made them angrier than ever.

"What the hell, man? Are you crazy?" asked Gray in disgust.

"Crazy? Me?" he smiled at Gray. "No, my friends. You are the crazy ones if you think you have a chance to defeat me now. Especially you" he said looking at the unknown mage. "I won't let you take it away from me, you freak" he screamed. "So let me introduce you my new little dolls here."

As the Fairy Tail and Sabertooth mages braced themselves for whatever he tried to do or the effect that gem might have on them, they heard a quiet sobbing voice from the other end of the hallway.

"Zoe? Zoe? Are you here?" asked the voice between sobs.

When they turned to the direction the voice came from, they saw a purplish exceed with a few small white spots, with teary eyes getting near the stranger. She had a white-black polka dotted bow on her head, a little white dress and only one shoe on.

"Can you help me? I lost my shoe in the maze and now I can't find it" said the exceed, crying.

"Oh, so you have a little friend there? How about killing that thing first, huh?" laughed Mr. A holding the progressively shinier gem up with his left hand, pointing at the crying exceed with the other. "I'll let you watch that thing die, and then you're next."

His breath seemed to stop in his throat a moment later when he felt a sharp pain in his left hand and he saw small red crystals mixed with his blood falling in front of him.


	3. Wonderstruck

**Chapter 3.**

 **Wonderstruck**

"Ho-How dare you?" screamed Mr. A in pain, as he fell to the ground, examining his bloody left hand with a dagger sticking out of it.

When he looked up, he saw that the intruder was standing right in front of him, predatory eyes with vertical slit pupils looking directly into his. She slowly lowered the hood of her cloak, took her gloves off and then got a letter out from under her cloak.

"Salvadore Amoratto," started the stranger "by receiving this letter, you are now officially summoned by the International Magic Court of Justice to appear in court. The warrant contains the list of crimes you've committed, or at least the ones we know about. I suggest you wait for the IMC officers to arrive here, while I go on a shoe hunt" she said in a serious voice, as she stepped on his left arm to pull her dagger out of his hand. "Maybe one of your bodyguards can read it out for you if you ask them nicely enough. I don't suggest you touch it with bloody hands."

She turned around and made her way back to the exceed through the awed mages. Sting watched her brown locks slightly rise and fall as she walked by, picking her still sobbing exceed up and walking away from the scene.

Nothing could be heard besides Mr. A's whimpering and Natsu's snoring as the surprised mages just stood there in silence. Sting was the first to regain his composure. He put his hand in his pockets and started walking towards the exit. He had to check out who this girl was.

"Hey, Lector! Wanna go on a shoe hunt?" he asked, grinning.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Lector exclaimed excitedly as he ran after Sting. "I bet we can find it sooner than they can!"

"Rogue" said Frosch holding Rogue's kimono. "Can Frosch hunt shoes, too?"

"Sure" said Rogue gently smiling at his exceed. "Can you guys take care of him?" asked Rogue the fairies as Frosch started happily running after Sting and Lector.

"Leave the rest to us" said Erza as she grabbed and opened the letter, 'accidentally' stepping on Mr. A in the process. "Can you check if the others are just sleeping as well?"

With a final nod, Rogue followed his guild members as Erza started to read out the warrant the girl delivered.

~v~

While Zoe with her exceed in her arms was making her way out of the maze (along with the already found shoe), Sting and Lector waited near the exit of the maze for them.

"How did you manage to lose it, anyway?" Zoe asked.

"I thought I'd heard someone coming" she explained as she tried to put her shoe back on. "I got scared and ran away as fast as I could. I didn't want anyone finding me alone."

Zoe didn't reply. She didn't see that guy anywhere but she was sure he was there. She was wondering how long he was planning on playing this stupid game. Running away every single time. Her exceed watched her partner, who seemed to be deep in her thoughts, frowning.

"Are you mad at me?" the exceed asked.

"No" she replied calmly, focusing on her exceed.

"Aren't you mad that I didn't stay outside as you asked me to?"

"No."

"Aren't you mad that you had to leave and help me because I couldn't find my shoe on my own?"

"No."

"Aren't you mad that we probably can't collect the reward for that guy because you had to abort the mission and let the other mages capture him?"

She stopped on her track thinking about what the exceed just said.

"Dammit" she said lowering her head. "And no, I'm not mad at you for anything. You got your shoe back, you're safe now, and that's all that matters to me" she said putting the exceed on the ground. "And what can I do for you guys?"

Her violet eyes turned to the direction Sting and Lector were waiting, not looking directly at any of them.

"We thought we should help you find her shoe" smiled Sting. "But it seems you've already found it."

"But only because we let you find it. If Sting and I wanted to, we could've found it much earlier than you did" bragged Lector making Sting blush in embarrassment and Zoe raise an eyebrow.

"Lector!" Sting exclaimed thinking about what to say to calm the situation down and not make this n

"Huh! As if the two of us would need any help from guys like you! Male chauvinis… You think just because we're girls we're not good enough to get things done?" the other exceed replied cockily, making now Zoe want to sink in embarrassment.

"Amelia!" she said looking at her with wide eyes.

"You were the one running in there crying for help!"

"Not for your help! You don't even have any shoes on!" Amelia said pointing at Lector's feet.

"Um… Well, because I don't need them! That's right! I can run faster without shoes!" Lector said with a triumphant smile.

"Huh! Liar! I'm sure I can run and also fly faster than you with these on!"

"I'm not a liar! You're the liar!"

"Um… Zoe, was it?" Sting asked stepping closer to her letting the two exceeds deal with each other, grabbing her attention to look at him. "Hey. I'm Sting. Sting Eucliffe. I'm the master of Sabertooth Guild" he said showing his guild mark proudly.

"Nice to meet you" she said looking back at the arguing exceeds. "This might take a while" she sighed sitting down cross-legged.

"May I?" Sting asked looking at the spot next to Zoe.

"Right" she replied quietly.

"You're a dragon slayer, aren't you?" Sting asked while trying to make himself comfortable on the ground. He finally settled in a half sitting half lying position.

She nodded, still watching the exceeds.

"Still, you didn't use any dragon slayer magic. I guess five dragon slayers fighting would've destroyed this whole place, huh. Not to mention Erza and Gray joining the fight. Man, they can be really scary when they fight seriously. We could've made a huge mess back there. Guess we're lucky you didn't want to get into a fight in the mansion."

Sting was rambling. He was really nervous and talking non-stop about random things seemed to help him feel better. Kind of. Secretly, he was hoping she would turn to him and look at him again. She had really pretty eyes and Sting wanted those eyes to be focused on him.

"How did you know?" Zoe interrupted.

"Hm? Oh, that you're a dragon slayer?" Sting asked.

"That I'm a girl."

"Uh, that" Sting paused scratching the back of his head. "I'm not sure. I just had a feeling, I guess."

"A feeling, huh."

"Yup. 'Cause I definitely couldn't see you and I can't feel your scent either" he added curiously.

"I hide it."

"Your scent? Why?"

She slowly turned her head toward Sting before she said, smiling: "'Cause I'm a huntress."

Sting just laid there, enchanted. Something he's never felt before. It confused and bothered him greatly, still, he felt calm and comfortable by her side. For the next few minutes Sting and Zoe just watched as the two exceeds continued arguing, running and flying around the place just to show the other who's right. Meanwhile, Rogue and Frosch arrived there as well and Frosch joined the other exceeds without even knowing what was going on.

"What's up in there, Rogue?" Sting asked.

"Erza and the others are taking care of Mr. A" Rogue started settling next to Sting. "The others are still sleeping."

"We're lucky you destroyed that mind control thing" Sting said looking at Zoe. "What was that anyway?"

"Hmph" agreed Rogue. "And who knows what kind of effect it could've had on us."

"None" Zoe stated.

"What do you mean? He definitely sounded like he possessed something really powerful. Deadly, even. And he threatened your exceed. I thought you destroyed that gem to protect her" Sting said sitting up.

"I did hurt him for threatening Amelia" she admitted with a slight embarrassment in her voice. "But the gem was not dangerous. It was fake."

"Really? How did you know that just by looking at it from so far away?" Sting asked excitedly.

"And what if you were wrong about it?" suggested Rogue.

"There's no such thing as a mind-controlling gem. Or jewel, potion, hat, wand, whatever. No object can be used to control one's mind. Such great power cannot be transferred to any object. He was deceived. Spells might've worked, though" she explained.

"Like the spell you used to make people fall asleep?" asked Rogue.

She nodded turning her head slightly toward the dragon slayers.

"I had no reason to hurt any of them" she said before standing up. "Let's go, Amelia. You've had enough fun for tonight."

"Wa-wait! Where are you going? Shouldn't you wait for those officers to come?" jumped Sting to his feet.

"You guys staying here is enough. And don't worry" she said looking directly into Sting's eyes. "I have a feeling that we'll meet again soon."

She started slowly walking toward the exit letting Amelia catch up to her.

"By the way" she said stopping, looking back at the twin dragon slayers. "When was the last time you saw that butler?"

"The butler?" wondered Rogue.

"When you rang the doorbell" said Sting.

After that she turned back, put her hood on her head and continued walking. Sting and Rogue watched as their figures were slowly swallowed by the darkness of the night. When they were completely out of sight, Rogue sighed loudly before standing up to make his way back to the mansion.

"She's a really strange person" said Rogue. "What did you find out about her?"

"Well" started Sting. "She's Zoe. A dragon slayer. And um… She hides her scent?" said Sting.

"Really?" said Rogue. "There are so many things you could've asked her and that's all the info you gathered? What did you do until we arrived?"

"We were just sitting, I guess" said Sting puzzled. "You could've asked her stuff yourself when you got here. It's not my fault that you didn't do it."

"You've completely fallen for her, haven't you" said Rogue to Sting.

Sting looked his partner in the eye, before grinning and throwing his arms in the air.

"Let's go back, guys. The mission is not over yet."


	4. State the Obvious

**Chapter 4.**

 **State the Obvious**

Zoe and Amelia were walking down the busy city streets, Zoe's hands in her pocket, Amelia ranting about the size and quality of the shoes in the shops they'd already visited. Zoe absolutely hated shopping and didn't really understand why they had to go to all those other shops when they had a designer, shoe and dress maker friend. After hours of aimless walking, they always ended up at her place buying or ordering something that she made just for them. She already knew all of the important sizes for both of them, the kind of colours and patterns they liked, and understood what fashion is all about. Something Zoe could not wrap her head around. Amelia seemed to get the basics of it and it fascinated Zoe. Kind of. It fascinated her how much time Amelia could spend on finding matching shoes to her dresses, how she could choose what kind of hair accessory fits to her shoes (or her dress?), and obviously telling Zoe every morning how she should be ashamed of herself. For not being interested in such things, that is.

"Do you think we should get some cute umbrellas as well?" Amelia asked.

"You already have an umbrella" said Zoe.

"Ugh, but it's just a simple umbrella. I want something cute. Like a rainbow-coloured one. Or one with little strawberries on it" explained the exceed. "You should get one, too."

"I have a raincoat" Zoe replied.

Amelia stopped, lifting her little paw to her forehead, sighing loudly.

"Are you five, or what? Or fifty, maybe?" she asked sarcastically before continuing walking.

"What's wrong with my raincoat?"

"Everything!" Amelia exclaimed. "It's dull, worn-out and it's not for young and pretty girls like you. It's not fashionable."

Amelia was apparently really angry. Already. She can get really mad when it comes to Zoe's relationship with fashion.

"I like my raincoat" said Zoe. But as soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it was a bad idea to continue the conversation like this.

"Of course you do. Because your sense of fashion matches with a rock's" she mumbled in response. "I don't understand how you could leave the house in these clothes. You should've already thrown these out like months ago."

Zoe looked down on her simple black shoes, loose greenish cargo pants and black off-the-shoulder top, thinking about Amelia's comment. Should she ask what's wrong with these? That would just make the poor exceed go crazy. She decided to change the subject as soon as she could think of something else to say. That took some time, though.

"Does she know we're coming?" she asked finally, referring to their tailor friend.

"I sent her a message a few days ago with the list of things we'd like to get" Amelia answered.

"Anything for me?"

"Don't worry, you don't have to be there" Amelia said, setting Zoe at ease. "She'll definitely ask me about how you're doing, though."

"Okay" Zoe replied after a couple of seconds.

"Sooo… How are you doing?" asked Amelia slyly.

"Fine."

"Have anything interesting happened to you recently?" she smiled.

"Not that I can think of."

"Have you met anyone worth to mention?" she asked stepping closer to Zoe. "During a mission, maybe? Like a tall, handsome blonde with an annoying exceed?"

Realising what Amelia tried to imply, she began thinking about her encounter with those mages back at the mansion. She'd never actually met any other dragon slayers, and at that time there were five of them at the same time. And those other guys she had to knock out as well. She really hoped she'll never meet any of them again. It would be so awkward. That blonde guy was weird as well. Sting something. She didn't remember his family name. And what was the crimson-eyed guy's name? She should really work out a way to remember people's names better. They stopped at a crossing where they were supposed to go left to their friend's place. Zoe got her purse out of her pocket, and passed it to her exceed as she went straight forward.

"He's not that tall" she commented. "I'll be here in an hour."

Receiving the purse and the typical Zoe-like answer, Amelia laughed happily as she ran toward their friend's shop.

As Zoe went on with no specific destination whatsoever, she continued her train of thoughts. The missing butler from that mission still bothered her. That rich aristocrat was not cunning enough to gather all the equipment and make all the necessary preparations for those experiments. Doesn't seem like his style, either. Violating some rules at his construction site is one thing, but sacrificing hundreds of people trying to create a cursed object with extremely powerful magical abilities is a completely different story. Even if people like him are interested in black magic or enhanced objects, it's usually for something trivial. Like to make more money. Or getting some tools so that they don't have to employ so many people. That butler must've given him the ideas, maybe somehow bewitched him as well. She should've asked that Mr. Someone how he met his butler. It must've been the guy she and Amelia have been trying to find for months. Damn, that guy's really good at playing roles. He knew Zoe was going there and before they could meet, he fled. He always seems to be one step ahead of her, and it pisses Zoe off. This way she's never going to find **him**.

Zoe wandered around town for what seemed like an eternity, and looking at the clock tower she saw that she was late for her reunion with Amelia. She quickened her steps and decided to use some of the alleys as shortcuts. It's almost impossible that Amelia had already finished her business but she prefers waiting for someone to being waited for her. As she was passing through one of the alleyways, she could feel she was followed by some people. She stopped in the middle of the deserted street waiting for her followers to show themselves.

"Hey there, beautiful" said a roguelike guy behind her, as he slowly approached her with two other shady guys.

Thieves in this part of the town? It must've been a long time she visited this place. Getting attacked in the richest part of this town seemed out of the ordinary to her. It makes sense, on the other hand. But public safety's never seemed to be a problem around here. Now the main problem was these guys' safety, though.

"What does such a pretty girl do in these filthy alleys?" another guy asked emerging from one of the small side roads in front of her.

"Whathca said? You wanted to give us your purse, huh? You're so kind" said one of them, making the others laugh.

Zoe lowered her head, mentally face-palming herself. She's not in the mood for these random guys' stupid jokes and lame comments.

"Don't worry, m'lady" said the one in front of her with a somewhat friendly smile on his face. "We're not here to hurt you. We just need your money. Causing pain to such a fine lady would be bad for our reputation."

"Your reputation shouldn't be the first thing to worry you right now" Zoe said looking at the guy in front of her.

"Just shut up and give us the money" said one of the grunts behind her, holding something sharp to her back.

"Didn't you know that attacking a dragon slayer could be bad for your health?" she asked showing the evilest smile she could before attacking the thieves.

* * *

Minerva, Rogue and Frosch were walking down the busy city streets, Rogue's hands in his pocket, Minerva trying to explain Frosch some details about the mission.

"And as so many expensive shops are located in this part of the city, some bad people decided to steal from those shopping here" she said.

"They don't want to steal Frosch from Rogue, right?" Frosch asked Rogue.

"No" replied Rogue smiling while Minerva chuckled at the exceed's cute comment.

"And if they tried to" added Minerva, "we wouldn't let anything happen to you."

Frosch seemed to get really happy hearing these answers. But this happiness didn't last long as they saw a bunch of guys flying out from an alleyway a couple of meters ahead of them, followed by Zoe calmly walking out of the same alley.

"Mo-monster!" screamed one of them as they pulled themselves together and started running away.

Rogue recognised her instantly. Taking a mental note not to anger her, he started walking towards her, passing Minerva who just stared at the running men then the girl standing in front of her.

"I guess they won't bother anyone around here for some time" he said to Zoe.

"Umm… Yeah, I guess" said Zoe awkwardly.

"Are you on a mission, again?" asked Rogue trying really hard to think about topics they could have a conversation about with her.

"Amelia's shopping" she replied. "I'm not patient enough for that, so I'm just wandering around town."

Rogue laughed a bit at her comment. Realising, that Minerva was still standing behind him watching Zoe curiously, he felt he should introduce the two girls to each other.

"I see. By the way, Zoe, let me introduce you to our guild mate, Minerva" he said turning his head to Minerva's direction, who then stepped closer smiling at Zoe. "Minerva, she's Zoe. She's the dragon slayer we met during that mission we took with Sting.

"I'm Minerva Orland" she smiled.

"Hi. Zoe" she said, raising her hand for a small wave.

"It's nice to finally meet you" Minerva said politely. "Sting's told us a lot about you."

Raising her right eyebrow was Zoe's only reply to this comment. Realising how weird that actually sounded, Minerva and Rogue looked at each other with wide eyes. Thankfully, Amelia's voice from the distance broke the awkward silence. She was walking in their direction carrying a bunch of shopping bags, finally putting them down at Zoe's foot.

"You could've helped me, you know" she said, panting.

"I was busy" Zoe replied.

"Doing what?" Amelia asked.

"Talking?" Zoe asked looking at Minerva and Rogue, earning a loud laugh from Amelia.

"I can imagine that" she said. "I'm afraid we don't know each other yet. My name is Amelia. I'm Zoe's exceed."

"It's nice to meet you again, Amelia. She's Minerva, this is Frosch and I'm…"

"Rogue" Amelia interrupted. "Yeah, I remember you guys from that mansion mission. So what are you guys up to now?"

She was really thankful for Amelia's sudden appearance, as she would've probably just stood there saying nothing. Also, she was wondering how on earth Amelia can think of a topic to talk about with random strangers. She doesn't even know what to talk about with people close to her. Not that it bothers her much. She likes just silently being around people. Like at the mansion yard with the blond guy. What was his name, again? Something with E… Eugene? Definitely not. Or was it his family name that started with E? Damn it, she could remember it like an hour ago. And this other girl mentioned his name, too. She said he talked about Zoe a lot. Wait, what?

"Oh, that would be great" exclaimed Amelia, making Zoe focus on the conversation once again. "Please, Zoe. Can we go there?"

"Well, um… I mean… If we don't bother anyone" said Zoe, having no idea where Amelia wanted to go.

"Don't worry about it" said Minerva reassuringly. "I'm sure everyone would be excited to meet you guys. And I think Master should've already finished most of the paperwork by now" winked Minerva at Zoe.

"Fro thinks so, too" added Frosch happily.

"You've already taken care of our job here" said Rogue to Zoe. "So we could go right now, if it's okay with you."

"Yes! I'd love to!" said Amelia excitedly. "Can you bring the bags, please? We should stop by the inn and put them down it our room."

"Sure thing, I think it's on the way to the guild anyways" agreed Minerva.

Zoe looked at Amelia's happy face and with a nod, gathered the bags as they made their way to the famous Sabertooth Guild.


	5. A Nerve to Adore You

**Chapter 5.**

 **A Nerve to Adore You**

Amelia was searching for her favourite bag in the closet, also gathering some items to put in it, while Zoe left the shopping bags in the living room and grabbed her leather jacket. She then stood in the doorway, leaning against the door frame, waiting for Amelia to get ready.

"Stop it" said Amelia looking at her from the corner of her eye.

"What do you mean?" Zoe asked monotonously.

"Overthinking it. Stop it."

As Amelia was rummaging, still looking for some unimaginably important things, Zoe sat down in the couch.

"I don't like meeting new people" she stated.

"Come on" said Amelia trying to cheer hep up. "I'm sure everybody is thrilled to finally meet you. The one who defeated some of the top mages of Fiore."

"Technically, I didn't defeat them."

"You may be right about that. Then everybody is thrilled to meet the one who stole their master's heart" said Amelia smiling.

"Please, don't do this to me, Amelia" she replied, burying her face in her hands.

"Okay, okay" laughed Amelia. "Anyway. Getting to know mages from a legal guild might be useful for business. And being around other dragon slayers should be good for you. You guys could learn a trick or two from each other" she said trying to distract Zoe's thoughts from the social interaction part of the upcoming meeting.

"I have no idea what to talk about with them" sighed Zoe. "Or what to ask them."

"Then don't ask anything. Stop worrying."

"I don't know any of those people at the guild" said Zoe nervously. "And even if I know them, I probably don't remember their names."

"Then they'll just introduce themselves again" replied Amelia.

"Why am I so awkward?" asked Zoe.

"Just be yourself, okay?" smiled Amelia putting her paw on Zoe's leg reassuringly. "And try not to zone out too much. Come on, we shouldn't make them wait any longer."

"And you shouldn't let that other exceed anger you" said Zoe smiling, earning a rather nasty glace from Amelia.

With that, they finally started their journey to Sabertooth.

The guild hall was filled with laughter and chatter. Sting had just finished working and then sat down at the table where Lector was. He patted his exceed's head, smiling, as he started listening to the conversation Yukino and Rufus were having about some book in a language Rufus couldn't read. It really frustrated Rufus which Sting found surprisingly funny. Also, this gave him an excellent opportunity to tease the poor guy, making him even more annoyed.

"Sting, that's enough" said Yukino. "Don't be so mean to him."

"I'm not mean. I'm just joking, right, Rufus?" said Sting evilly, with Lector laughing next to him.

"Of course" replied Rufus cockily. "Though, I have no memory of you being such a funny guy when you met that girl. Zoe, if my memory serves me right. Which surely does."

With an evil grin, he leaned back in his chair, carefully watching Sting's reaction to his teasing comment. However, instead of an embarrassed wide-eyed look, what he got was his guild master closing his eyes while smiling in defeat.

"Does everyone in the guild already know, how much I suck at flirting, huh?" he said softly.

"That's not what Rufus meant, Sting" explained Yukino quickly. "Come on, Sting, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you think."

"She is right" said Rufus reassuringly. "I think you're over exaggerating the situation. Right, Lector?"

Rufus looked at Lector, expectantly, but the exceed didn't really know what they were talking about. He didn't remember anything bad happening to Sting, so he tried to answer so that he would make Sting seem really cool as usual.

"Sting is always awesome!" Lector exclaimed.

"Thank you, guys" said Sting smiling. "Let's hope I'm not gonna be a dumbass next time."

As the others worked on cheering their master up, they were soon interrupted by Frosch and Amelia running through the door. Amelia has never seen a legal guild before and Frosch was really excited to show her around the place.

"Good afternoon, everyone" said Amelia politely.

As she looked around the hall, checking out both the interior of the building and the people looking at her and Frosch curiously, she spotted Sting staring at her with wide eyes. Frosch grabbed her paw and started walking in Sting's direction.

"Look, Sting and Lector are here, too" said Frosch happily.

"Hi, Sting" she said smiling.

As they were walking toward Sting and his companion, seeing Amelia, Lector defiantly turned his head the exact opposite way she was.

"Long time no see" said Amelia, ignoring Lector's behaviour as much as she could.

"Amelia" exclaimed Sting nervously as he stood up, staring at her, wondering where on earth Frosch met her. And more importantly, what she was doing there without Zoe. If she really came here without her, that is.

Meanwhile, the two exceeds stopped next to their table. As Sting didn't seem to be able to explain the situation or at least react to it, Yukino was the one to break the awkward silence.

"Welcome to our Guild. I'm Yukino" she said, holding out her hand to Amelia. "It's nice to meet you."

"But… What are you doing here?" asked Sting without thinking about his question, before Amelia could answer.

"Yeah, what are you doing in our guild?" questioned Lector, making Amelia annoyed and the others feel even more awkward.

"Well, that was extremely rude of you, guys" said Minerva sternly as she stood at the entrance with her hands on her hips.

Behind her stood Rogue pinching the bridge of his nose and Zoe with her usual expressionless face, looking at the astonishingly interesting flooring so she could avoid eye-contact with Sabertooth members. Sting felt like the ground should just open up beneath him to swallow him. That way he wouldn't need to feel so ashamed and embarrassed as he did at that moment. He didn't mean to offend Amelia, but thinking back, he did sound really rude. Before he could begin apologising, Amelia chuckled as she started speaking.

"I guess the Queen of Awkwardness found her King" she said looking at Zoe with a mischievous face, earning the laughs or at least chuckles of everyone, except poor Zoe and Sting.

They looked at each other in embarrassment as Zoe tried to figure out a way to end this misery, so both of them could have a chance to save face. Or at least she can. She then looked at Amelia with a smiling face and let out a small laugh before speaking slowly and loudly.

"Well, I am mortified" she paused for a second before continuing. "But you guys can call me Zoe, like everyone else does" she finished, looking around the hall.

Thankfully, this was enough to lighten the mood and avert people's thoughts from Amelia's joke to how funny and cool girl Zoe was. Sting looked at Zoe admiringly for a second, as Minerva patted her back, telling her to join Sting and the others at their table. After a short introduction, they decided to take a break before showing them, mostly Amelia, the guild.

"So, what are you guys reading?" asked Amelia before settling down in Zoe's lap, referring to the book in the desk.

"I don't know yet" started Rufus. "I have no memory of the language it was written in. So before Mr. Guild Master interrupted us, Yukino and I were trying to figure out a way to translate it to the common language."

"May I see it?" asked Amelia getting up, hopping on the table.

"Be my guest" said Rufus, giving the book to her. "Maybe you'll have more luck with it than I did."

Amelia took the book, looked at the cover, then opened it and flipped through the pages.

"Can you check it out, Zoe?" asked Amelia stepping toward her.

"What is it?" replied Zoe.

"The letters seem familiar, but I can't recognise the language" she said as she handed it over to Zoe.

"I would be extremely grateful, even if it's just the language family you identify" said Rufus excitedly. "Giving me the slightest clue how to start my research would be greatly appreciated."

They all watched in silence as Zoe examined the book, first on the outside, then the first few pages. Even Lector and Frosch seemed interested in what could be in the book, though Lector tried hard not to make Amelia aware of it. She really annoyed him, so he didn't want her to know that they have some common interest.

"Are you interested in Encan folklore?" Zoe asked, lifting her gaze up from the book to look at Rufus.

"Excuse me?" he replied.

"This book is a collection of folktales and legends from the Island of Enca, like the Bagging Man who takes bad kids away or the Two-Faced Owl that helped out the first settlers" she started explaining as she showed the corresponding stories in the book. "It was written in a Southern Encan dialect, in a kind of long-forgotten language. Lately it's only used in some remote settlements. Probably that's why you couldn't understand it."

"That's incredible" said Sting.

What Sting really wanted to say was 'You are incredible', but he thought this may not be the right time and place to openly admire her. As a result, he earned an honest, slightly embarrassed smile from her when she looked at him.

"So you can read it?" Rufus asked. "That easily?"

"Wow, that's so cool" said Lector, who just couldn't contain his amazement anymore.

"Fro thinks so, too" smiled Frosch.

"She may be bad with names, but she's really good at languages" said Amelia proudly.

"I can translate it to you some day, but it might take an hour or two" said Zoe.

"I would be eternally in your debt, if you could do that" said Rufus, taking off his hat.

"That sounds fun" smiled Amelia.

"That's really kind of you" interrupted Zoe, staring hard at Amelia. "It would be my pleasure, though. It would make a great free time activity."

The rest of the day passed in a really cheerful and friendly manner as Amelia could finally take a look at a proper guild, not just some random dark guild's meet-up place that Zoe tears apart. They told stories about their lives in the guild, how the Grand Magic Games changed their lives, and what an incredible master Sting was. Sting and Rogue also told them how angry Natsu was to sleep through the whole ordeal at the mansion, which everybody found really funny.

Zoe talked a bit about her dragon mother, Sapphire the crystal dragon, and Amelia told some stories about their travels, the places they visited together and some adventures they had.

As the sunset came, the two girls thanked for the hospitality and promised to come back some day, both for translating Rufus' book and to check on how Sabertooth was doing.

"You were right about seeing each other soon the last time" said Sting as he, being the guild master, escorted them out. "Um… Can I ask you something?"

"Right" she replied simply.

"After that mission…" he started hesitantly. "When we went back to the others, we couldn't find the butler anywhere."

Zoe stopped at the entrance, turning to face Sting, waiting for him to continue.

"Do you know what happened to him?" he asked finally.

"I think he fled before he could let me in" she started. "I've been looking for him for quite some time now. But somehow he always manages to slip away."

"Is he dangerous?" asked Sting.

"Extremely" she stated, staring at Sting dead in the eye.

"Should we be worried about him?" he asked.

"Probably not."

"Should I be worried about you?" he asked softly.

Zoe wasn't really prepared for this question, so she just stared at him in surprise before Amelia answered for her.

"Don't worry, Prince Charming. We can protect ourselves" she said as she started walking away from the guild.

"She's right. We'll be fine" said Zoe smiling. "Till next time."

"Yeah. Next time" smiled Sting as he watched them disappear in the night, again. Feeling slightly more confident about his performance today, he went back to the others preparing to endure their teasing, probably the whole night.


	6. Somewhere Where You Are

**Chapter 6.**

 **Somewhere Where You Are**

A few days after visiting Sabertooth, Zoe and Amelia had to travel to Western Bosco to investigate the sudden disappearances of several government officials. When they got there, it turned out that not only officials but many townsfolks had disappeared in the past few weeks. They had similar jobs in the past and as time passed, these cases became more and more frequent. Cases like Mr. A and his magical stone. It wasn't always about mind controlling items or devices, but someone with a corrupted mind sacrificing people to create some illegal stuff was the basic outline of every story.

Their minds had to be corrupted by an outside source, they figured after the first few cases. The statistical probability of all these people having the same delusions in such short time period was actually really small. Too small, to be considered as random occurrences. Zoe was sure it has to be **his** work. Though, they were not sure what the actual aim of these acts was. They hoped they could stop whatever **he** was planning before they actually get to experience it.

Tracking down the culprit was easy enough for Zoe but this time, things were different. They were able to find the guy before he could actually finish the process of creating some presumably enchanted item. He was still in the beginning of the procedure, which meant that Zoe and Amelia found the still functioning laboratory this time. The lab with the sacrificial circle, with the bodies of the missing people. However, this time not their blood was used for the production.

The disgusting smell of blood, rotting flesh and chemicals filled the air miles from the lab. The closer they got the more intense the smell was. Amelia was kind of grateful for not having as sensitive nose as Zoe does. Still, it was probably the most disgusting thing she'd ever smelled. When they entered the lab, they saw a guy in a white coat and a face mask in the middle of a room, reading something out loudly from a huge book. In one of the corners was a heap of skinned bodies, clearly just thrown there one by one to get them out of the way of the experiments. There was no way to identify who the bodies belonged to. The only certainty was that this guy used only male victims. In front of the self-proclaimed scientist stood a huge container with some glutinous liquid with effervescing pieces of human flesh floating inside.

Asking questions about his connections or possible boss was futile as always. The only things this guy could rant about were power, money and knowledge. The same mantra all the others kept repeating. But this time, this guy tried to convince Zoe to join him carrying out his evil plan, as he might need a bride after achieving world domination. And Zoe seemed like the perfect bride-to-be: strong, beautiful, fierce and young enough to give birth to his children. Overwhelmed by anger and frustration, Zoe ended up destroying the whole lab while Amelia somehow managed to rescue the book and the already pretty beaten-up perpetrator. When Zoe calmed down, they took the guy back to the local police station where their client was waiting for them. On their way, to somewhat lighten the mood, Amelia suggested to find a hobby or something for Zoe that may help her with her anger issues. After she finally agreed to do something about it, the rest of the walk was relatively normal.

Even though it was obvious, that one guy alone wouldn't be able to get everything done: building the lab, getting the equipment, kidnapping all those people, what mattered for the client was that they successfully found out who was responsible for the disappearances, so the girls got the jewels they were promised to receive. That obviously meant that they had to visit a couple of shops on the way home, getting some nice clothes and dresses for Zoe so she could impress a certain White Dragon Slayer.

* * *

Two weeks or so has passed since Zoe's and Amelia's visit to Sabertooth. Their way back from Bosco was uneventful, but not their nights after that mission. The frequent and vivid nightmares made their lives miserable, especially Zoe's. Talking about them would have helped, she knew that. Amelia was feeling a bit better after describing her dreams and crying a few times. For Zoe, things were a bit different. Talking about her emotions was not easy for her. Usually she just wanted to be alone for a while and clear her head from all those nasty thoughts and memories. Destroying stuff, a couple of hours meditating or going out and watching the crowd from a café were her most often used methods. This time she decided on doing the latter.

Amelia went to get some groceries to prepare dinner, while Zoe went to a local coffee shop. She really liked the place; it had a nice little terrace to sit and enjoy whatever you bought there and it was really lively especially during late afternoons. She bought her usual coffee and picked out a small table where she settled down to enjoy some time alone.

This time, pulling herself together was not as easy as she expected it to be. Her mind was filled with thoughts about the Bosco incident. She could still recall the smell of death and decay that place emitted. She was angered by the tiny little progress they've made during the past few years and the gradually increasing number of cases that may be related to her adoptive brother was also concerning. There was always something she had to worry about and it didn't help neither her mental stability, nor improving the technique she's been working on for quite some time now. More and more troubling thoughts filled her mind as she was staring blankly into her still full cup of coffee.

She was suddenly brought back to reality when she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a familiar voice softly calling her name. As she looked up, she saw Sting standing next to her, looking at her with a worried smile.

"Hey, welcome back" he said. "I don't know what's in that coffee, but maybe I should get some, too."

Realising how deep in her thoughts she had to be, not even noticing Sting coming up to her, she tried calming herself and focusing her senses on her surroundings. Thankfully it was just Sting this time. But letting her guard down like this could've led to a more dangerous situation.

"Maybe you should" she smiled tiredly at Sting's silly joke, indicating he should have a seat. "It's on me."

"I'm not much of a coffee drinker" he said, sitting down and smiling happily." But a tea sounds nice, thank you."

With that, Zoe looked at a tall waiter standing behind the counter, who immediately went to their table to take Sting's order. He brought forth a collection of some of the finest blends and recommended some of the most popular ones to Sting. After choosing a mild citrus fruit mixture, Sting received a small tea set with the most necessary objects one needs to have a nice tea.

"I've never even heard of most of these blends" said Sting honestly.

"They are really proud of their tea collection" she said, looking at the list of blends listed above the counter. "Most of them are quite nice."

"Are you a regular here?"

"You can say that" nodded Zoe, trying to mix the remaining sugar in the bottom of her cup with the cold coffee. "Also, I'm their number one tea provider."

"Is that so?" Sting smiled, leaning back in his seat. "Are you the one supplying them with this one as well?"

"I usually bring these from Northern Fiore" she replied.

"So what can you tell me about it?"

"Well, I'm not an expert, but I know that it's a type of green tea that's really popular in Northern Fiore" she started, "but it's actually made in a small province in the country of Seven. Buying them in Fiore is much cheaper, though. The carefully hand-rolled tea leaves and bright citrus fruits add the complexity of this flavour. Also, if you pay extra attention, you may notice that it is scented with jasmine blossoms."

"I guess travelling has its advantages, huh" said Sting carefully smelling the tea, looking for the jasmine scent she was talking about.

"That is, if you survive the train rides and the voyages" she added sarcastically.

Sting let out a small laugh, trying not to let any memory of train rides infect his mind. Sipping his tea, he looked at Zoe, realising something was different about her. After a quick examination, he felt like her hair was a bit longer last time. It also seemed thicker now. And more layered, maybe.

"Your hair is different" he said.

"Amelia said it was about time for me to visit a hairdresser" she admitted. "She said this style suits me more."

"I like it" he said grinning. "Is Amelia around?"

"She's the one preparing today's dinner" she said. "How about Lector and the others?"

"We were just passing by when I saw you. Thought I should stay behind and say hi" he explained. "You looked kind of… Haggard."

"I can imagine" she murmured.

"Did something happen?" he inquired. "If you don't mind me asking."

"We went on a mission in Bosco. Kind of similar to the one with the hedge-maze guy. But this one was more…" she paused for a second, looking down and thinking about the correct word to politely describe it. "Unsettling."

Seeing her expression darken, not making eye-contact with him anymore, Sting felt his heart breaking. He wanted to do something to help her, comfort her.

"Is there, maybe, anything I can do for you?" he asked caringly as he leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table.

She looked up at him in the eye with a heart-warming smile, placing her hand on his, reassuringly.

"You've already done more than I could've ever asked for."

Hearing the clock from the shop striking, she looked at it to see it's already 6pm. She shyly pulled her hand back and stood up.

"I'm afraid I have to go now" she said. "Please, put these on my tab, Kev."

The waiter who previously served them nodded and went behind the counter to do so.

"When can I see you again?" asked Sting.

"I'll drop by in a day or two to get that book for Rufus done" she said as she started walking toward the exit. "Sting" she said looking back, "thank you."

"I didn't do anything, you know" he said, puzzled.

"You did. You cared" she added and with a small wave, she left the café.


	7. Lights, Party, Ball Gowns

**Chapter 7.**

 **Lights, Party, Ball Gowns**

It was around half past eight when Sting got back to the guild where he was greeted by his really excited guild mates. It turned out that the Monarch of the Principality of Samdé decided to send his children to Fiore to discuss some state-related issues with King Toma and the King decided to hold a banquet in the guest's honour. However, the exciting news was that, probably because of Princess Hisui's intercession, not only royalties but all kinds of guild members were also invited to attend the ball. They were super thrilled to meet and party together with Fairy Tail and the other guilds again, not to mention the chance to meet that foreign prince and princess. They wanted to be the guild that makes the best impression on them which meant that they had a lot of things to do. As only a couple of days were left to get the proper dresses and accessories, to revise the basic dance moves and etiquette rules, the knowledge of latter some members really lacked, everyone tried to figure out how they can help. So after Sting's arrival, they immediately started to gather the tasks that had to be done and assign the most competent people to do them. Obviously, working together wouldn't be interesting enough without sharing their thoughts and the gossips they heard about the visiting royal family.

It turned out that the Samdé family was quite a troublesome bunch. The firstborn was Princess Vivien, was currently 22 and still single, though the King wanted her to get married at 18. Her younger brother was Victor, 19, with questionable reputation especially when it came to sexual orientation. After their mother's death, their father spent all his time concentrating on ruling the principality, so both of them used to have a terrible relationship with their strict and hopelessly old-fashioned father. But that seemed to be improving lately. This might be the reason behind their travel to Fiore.

Midnight has passed a long time ago when Sting and Rogue could finally go and get some sleep. Not being used to pull an all-nighter, the exceeds went to bed a few hours ago. As the Twin Dragon Slayers were tiredly walking to their rooms, Sting's thought wandered from the issues with the preparations to his afternoon tea with Zoe.

"By the way, how is Zoe doing?" Rogue asked, just as if he could read his partner's mind.

"Well" Sting started scratching the back of his head, "good, I think. She was rather upset. But she said I helped her feel better, you know."

"What did you do?" asked Rogue, surprised.

"I have no idea" sighed Sting. "I just sat there and I don't know. I said a liked her hair."

"Sounds helpful" replied Rogue snickering.

"She said she might drop by soon" Sting added happily.

"You should ask her out."

"What?" stopped Sting, startled.

"You know, to accompany you to the ball."

"Umm… I don't know" he said absently.

"You don't want to?" asked Rogue.

"Of course I want to" snapped Sting. "It's just… she doesn't seem like that banquet type of girl. What if she would feel inconvenient with all those aristocrats and unknown people around? She could just reject me without a second thought."

"So you don't want to ask her because she probably says no?" asked Rogue, interpreting what Sting just said. "You're a moron."

The next couple of days passed by quickly without Zoe visiting the guild, solving Sting's problem of asking her out. Kind of.

* * *

As Fairy Tail arrived to the palace, they quickly either mingled with the other guild members or attacked the food tables. Master Makarov asked Erza to keep Natsu at bay as much as she could and with that he left to get a drink and have a conversation with his old friend, Bob. Soon, Sabertooth also arrived, cheerfully joining the conversations the others had and Sting politely making his rounds greeting the other guild masters. When Sting left them to say hi to Natsu and the others who were currently talking to Rogue and the two Sabertooth exceeds, Makarov seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a short time.

"I expected guards roaming all over the whole palace, considering all the attention and the special guests" said Master Makarov finally, looking around the ball room. "Or at least a bit stricter security."

"You can never know what's behind the scenes, my friend" Bob said with his usual smile. "I'm sure they made all the necessary measurements to protect the royal family members."

"You are right" said Makarov. "And what could go wrong with all these mages around right?" he asked cheerfully.

As they went on with their conversation, the king and Princess Hisui appeared in the hall, making the crowd slowly grow silent.

"Ladies, gentlemen, dear guests!" King Toma started. "As all of you may know, tonight's banquet is not just any kind of banquet. We are here to celebrate the renewal of long forgotten relationships, the challenges that help the development of our and also other countries and the young ones who make this possible. Please, welcome our honourable guests, the delegates of the Principality of Samdé from the Country of Stella: Princess Vivien Samdé and her companion, Lord Axel from the Noble House of Cantalon" he paused as they entered the ball room, the princess making a curtsey and her companion bowing to greet the guests. "And Prince Victor Samdé and his companion, Lady Zoe from the Noble House of Scevella."

Sting's breath was taken away, as Zoe walked in wearing a long navy blue corset dress with loose off the shoulder straps and bubbled hem skirt, tulle in the middle and draped on the sides. She wore a blue lace choker. Her hair was in a curly updo decorated with a small blue and white floral hair wreath, some curly locks hiding her ears. Sting couldn't help but feel jealous as Zoe took the prince's arm and walked into the crowd following the princess after the same greeting the she and her companion did.

"Is that…" started Erza looking at Zoe and then the Twin Dragon Slayers.

"Who?" asked Natsu curiously.

"Yeah" said Rogue as he still stared at Zoe in wander.

"Wow, she looks so…" said Lucy. "Pretty."

"What? Who?" asked Natsu again.

"She's like a princess. Don't you think, Carla?" asked Wendy happily

"Breathe, Sting" whispered Rogue, nudging his partner's side.

"Who are you talking about?" screamed Natsu, which only resulted in a blow on his head from Erza.

"Stop shouting, Natsu. We're in the king's banquet, remember?" said Lucy quickly.

"Alright, alright" apologised Natsu. "But who are you guys talking about?"

"The one who beat you up at the mansion" said Happy.

"She's here? Which one?" asked Natsu excitedly. "I'm gonna ask her to fight me again."

"I don't think this is the right time and place for that" commented Lucy, sighing. "Unless you want another blow from Erza.

"Hehe, maybe I'll ask her later" said Natsu quickly.

"Hey, Sting" said Lector, worried. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah" he replied with a sad and guilty smile, and putting his hands in his pockets, he slowly walked away to the nearest balcony to clear his head.

* * *

"I was thinking about the story you told us this afternoon" said Victor to Zoe as he was holding two glasses of champagne in front of him, offering one to her.

"Is that so" she replied, uninterested, as she carefully scanned the room with her eyes. Finishing, she looked at Victor and took the glass from him.

"Yes. Is any of them here? The guys you met that time" he asked curiously.

"I guess so" she wondered, trying to remember the faces she saw. "I remember him" she said motioning to Jura with her head.

"Which one?"

"The tall, bald guy with the funny long beard" she described.

"Whoa, he's massive" she said loudly, looking at Zoe with wide eyes, gaining the attention of some nearby guests.

"The enemy's size is not relevant when it comes to using an enchanted item" she said smiling.

"Incredible" he added. "Who else?"

"Oh, yeah. They were there as well" she sighed. "Can you see that short guy accompanied by those weirdos?"

"Yes, ma'am" he said already smiling at her upcoming comment.

"I have no idea what the matter is with them" she said in amazement. "They introduced themselves in their team name, or something. I don't remember what it was, but I was thinking to myself that they should be called 'The Old Man and the Creep Trio'."

Victor laughed out loud at that, making most of the guests look at them because of his unexpected behaviour. Zoe, paying no attention to the watching eyes, continued speaking.

"There is a pink haired boy with a blue exceed and some others at the dinner table" she said while Victor looked for them in the crowd.

"The one with that grumpy guy, the blondie and the redhead?" he asked.

"He's the one. Well, I accidentally put him to sleep as well" she said. "And it turned out, he's also a dragon slayer."

"Accidentally? Haha. He looks like an idiot" he added grinning. "I like him."

"I'm glad you guys are having fun" said Vivien grumpily. "I asked you not to leave me alone with that creep."

"Come on, Sis, he's your escort for the night" said Victor evilly.

"He's an arrogant lecher" she growled.

"Please, don't be stupid, Viv. He's supposed to protect you" said Zoe, looking around the room for anything or anyone unusual.

"Isn't there anyone more gallant and handsome to do so?" she whined. "Like your suitor, Zozo."

"Would you just stop calling me like that?" sighed Zoe.

"No, I wouldn't" she replied happily. "It sounds cute."

"It sounds annoying" said Victor.

"Thank you" added Zoe, looking at him.

"And here I was thinking you guys are fun" said Vivien. "Seriously, though. Is he here?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes" she said simply, sighing.

* * *

After Sting finally decided to stop sulking outside, he got back and joined the first people he found: Yukino and Lucy. They were talking about some writing-related things, but as Sting arrived, they tried really hard to cheer him up. That's when they were interrupted by Princess Vivien appearing behind Sting, clearing her throat semi-loudly, making him turn around.

"Excuse me for interrupting your conversation" she said smiling. "You're Master Eucliffe, aren't you?"

The girls' mouths fell open as Sting answered in surprise.

"Yes" he said gulping. "You're Princess…"

"Please, just call me Vivien, if you don't mind" she added.

"That would be extremely improper of me, I'm afraid" said Sting with a small embarrassed laugh, looking at Lucy and Yukino expecting for some kind of help from the girls.

"Come on, Sting" said Vivien in an overfriendly manner. "Zoe's friends are the Samdé family's friends" she smiled as she examined the shocked faces of the mages in front of her.

Feeling satisfied with the reaction she caused, she was thinking about other things to say that would probably make Zoe feel really uncomfortable later. Maybe something about Sting looking even better in person than how Zoe described him. She just loved seeing other people feel awkward, especially Zoe.

"Excuse me, Princess" she heard a voice from behind and turned around to face the men talking to her. "May I ask you for a dance?" asked a handsome middle aged man, holding out his right hand, smiling.

"That's really kind of you" she replied, looking into the man's mesmerising eyes.

Meanwhile, Zoe was quickly making her way through the crowd from the other side of the room, following Vivien.

"Are you going to make it?" asked Amelia through the voice transmitter in Zoe's ear.

"I have to" she whispered back as she tried hard not to know down some of the guests in her way.

"How are you going to stop him? You have to be very careful not to scare the other guests too much" Amelia added.

"I have a plan, don't worry" she replied.

"You can't use that technique, you hear me?" stated Amelia angrily.

"I don't have any other choice" she replied, not paying any attention to what Amelia screamed about.

When she was only a few steps away from Vivien and the man approaching her, she started whispering as she was holding the middle of her left upper arm.

"Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Partial Body Transformation."

Just before the princess could place her hand in the man's hand, Zoe stepped in, grabbed and pulled his arm away from Vivien with her left hand, coated in pink crystallised skin. As the man's hand now became more visible, a spot of large purplish moving smudge could be seen on the middle of his palm.

"So you finally decided to show up, huh" said Zoe looking at the man with predatory eyes and an evil grin.


	8. It Was Like Slow Motion

**Chapter 8.**

 **It Was Like Slow Motion**

What was that important issue that made the heir of Samdé and her brother travel to Fiore? What was the reason behind the grandiose banquet King Toma decided to hold? Why on earth was Zoe not only one of the royal guests but also looking out for the princess? The answer is simple to all these questions: a hitman.

Rumour had it that someone was hired to target the Samdé family. But with twice as many guards roaming around in the royal palace after finding out about this, he had hardly any chance to carry out his plans. Thus, he didn't make a move for long months. The Samdé siblings decided that they needed a plan to catch him, as sitting in the palace all day every day was not really their style. They knew that Zoe was probably the only person who would be able to and willing to help them, but she was currently in Fiore. That's when they contacted King Toma and asked his permission to their visit to Fiore in order to get this criminal with the help of the Kingdom and their great friends, Zoe and Amelia. The Prince of Samdé didn't care much about the whole ordeal as long as his palace was safe, so when they got green light from King Toma, they packed and sent a message to Zoe to meet them in Fiore. That's where they told her everything.

Before the banquet, she and Amelia found out, that the hitman trying to get them was called Taipan. He was one of the five most wanted and most dangerous criminals in Stella. He was a mage who used some kind of Poison Magic to kill his victims, but most of the cases that were supposedly associated with him were really odd, often without any conclusive evidence that it was really done by him.

The plan was to hold a seemingly low-security ball, letting Taipan act as one of the many guests. The criminal was supposed to be pinpointed by Zoe and Amelia, and be arrested by Lord Axel, who was a Royal Knight of Samdé Principality. What nobody really took into account were two things: Lord Axel was a creep, and Princess Vivien preferred handsome young lads over creeps. Zoe and Amelia had a feeling that things were not going to work out as planned, so they had their own Plan 2 to get Taipan. Even with these in mind, things were seemingly getting out of hand, so Amelia had to act quickly trying to fix things.

After stuffing the necessary scrolls and some chalk to her bag to successfully finish the operation, she flew to the ball room as fast as she could, alerting the guards and Magic Council officers on the way that the plan is changed. Explaining the framework of Plan 2, she told them the necessary steps they had to take and asked them to find a Fairy Tail mage named Wendy Marvell, as she plays a crucial role in carrying out the plan successfully. She knew she had to act quickly if they wanted to catch the guy without any casualties and without Zoe completely destroying her arm, again. Or getting hurt even worse. As she got into the hall, she was relieved to see that Zoe managed to get Taipan before he could hurt the princess. But she didn't have time to spare; every second mattered more than she could actually comprehend. She flew fast above the area where Zoe stood and started drawing two Magic Circles on the ceiling. When she finished, she got out the first scroll of her bag, and mumbling the spell written on it, she activated the first circle that slowly but steadily started draining the magic power of the ones underneath – Zoe and the hitman. She pulled out the second scroll, waiting for Zoe's sign to actually activate the second Magic Circle and possibly strengthen the first one.

Meanwhile, Victor got to his sister and the others, motioning them to stay silent and to slowly take a few steps back from Zoe and the man while Zoe worked on drawing his attention away from them. The guards cautiously made their way to the room as well, looking for Wendy and making sure that the guests were as far away from the scene as possible. They had to be careful not to cause panic or alert Vivien's attacker of their covert operation. Obviously, trying to convince most of the attending mages that they should get to a safe distance from Zoe and Taipan was useless, especially Fairy Tail members after the guards asked Wendy to take part in the action as well.

* * *

"So you finally decided to show up, huh" said Zoe looking at the man with predatory eyes and an evil grin.

Turning to Zoe's direction and locking eyes with her, for a moment, he thought that attending the banquet might have been a bad idea. However, realising that this pretty noble lady was the one trying to be the one stopping him from eliminating his target, he relaxed and decided to play with her a little then kill both her and the princess.

"Well, good evening, my lady" he said seductively. "Can I help you?"

"You made me wait for quite some time, you know" she smiled.

"Oh, my. Making such a pretty lady wait. How rude of me" he said, as the purple Poison Magic started to slowly spread from his palm to his arm. "Is there anything I can do to make up for it?"

"I'm sure, we can figure something out" said Zoe, not breaking eye-contact for even a split second with him.

"I like your attitude, Miss Scevella" he grinned.

"Seems you were here sooner that I realised" she replied, acting surprised that he knew her name.

"Yes, I've had my eyes on the princess for a while, if you don't mind" he said as he started turning his head to Vivien's direction.

"What a pity" she replied quickly, tightening her grip on his arm, making him face her again. "That really hurt my feelings, sir."

"Looks like is about nothing but me proving to be the rudest man in the surface of Earthland" he chuckled to himself, as his poison started coating his other arm. "Let me introduce myself, before we move on."

"There is no need for that, Taipan" she said seriously. "Your reputation preceded you."

"Pretty, strong and well-informed" he said admiringly.

"Actually, I could use some more information. Like who your client was, or why he wants Vivien dead" she explained calmly.

"It's really a shame I have to kill you, you know"

"The shame is" she said slowly looking up to look at Amelia, who started reading the scroll to activate the second Magic Circle, "that you're even more predictable than I expected you to be."

Following her eyes, Taipan looked at the ceiling and realised he had been tricked. Feeling his Magic Power being drained and seeing the sealing circle being activated, he had to use his back-up plan. He's been caught, there is no way out for him, but he's not going to be the only one going down.

"Congratulations. You managed to get me" he said reaching for a knife hidden beneath his overcoat. "But I'm afraid you have no time to enjoy your victory."

He pulled out his small knife, a transparent liquid dripping from its blade, and tried to stab Zoe. His movements were not fast enough to actually stab her. She managed to catch the blade before it could hit her but she her palm still got cut. And that was enough for Taipan.

"Your reflexes are great. But you couldn't possibly think that I meant to give you a fatal wound with this little guy" he said with enthusiasm. "You might already feel an intense burn in your hand, creeping up through your veins, slowly reaching your heart, lungs, brain… You know, all the necessary internal organs."

As Zoe looked down on to her hand still gripping the blade, she could hear him laugh and Vivien screaming her name, but beside that, the mages gathered around them stood in dead silence. She felt her Magic Power being drained and her Crystal Transformation magic disappearing due to Amelia's sealing Magic Circle. Her arm hurt, as the crystals slowly vanished along with the skin they were attached to, leaving nothing but a bloody mess formerly known as her left arm.

"You should start to suffocate soon" Taipan added. "For some reason your lungs react to the poison faster than your heart. I have no idea, why. But that's okay, I looove listening to the sounds people make when they are desperately trying to…"

"I've always thought that these nicknames hitmen get are extremely stupid" Zoe interrupted, looking back at him. "It just tells me everything I need to know about the enemy, you know. For example, here's your name. Taipan. It makes me think about the reasons you got this name. They wouldn't name you Taipan if you were a simple mage with Poison Magic. I don't assume the hitmen community to be too creative when giving name, they're more straightforward, right? Naming you specifically after a venomous snake must mean that one way or the other, you use the venom of this snake. When you are not able to use magic. For example when you are inside a Magic Circle that prevents magic use. And if there is a poison, there is an antidote. Now, I'll ask you again. Who hired you?"

Being nauseous and weak from both his magic being drained and the dread Zoe's speech induced in him, he looked at Lord Axel with wide terrified eyes, trying to form a coherent sentence. Following his gaze, Zoe saw Lord Axel trying to flee the scene. She let both the frozen Taipan and the knife go, making both fall to the ground.

"That's enough, Amelia" she said through her voice transmitter, than looked at Victor. "You should tell the guards to take Lord Axel into custody."

Victor, along with everyone else around was looking at Zoe and the hitman in shock. Vivien was standing next to her brother with teary eyes, staring at Zoe's bleeding hands. Zoe could feel the power of the Magic Circles dissipating. But her arm really hurt.

"Victor" Zoe exclaimed, trying to get his attention. "Victor?"

Her calls fell on deaf ears. Thankfully, Amelia landed near them telling the coming guards to send people after the fleeing criminal while two guards lifted up the still awestricken Taipan from the ground and took him away.

Sting, along with Yukino and Lucy quickly made their way to Zoe who was watching Taipan being dragged away from the hall.

"Are you alright? We should get you a doctor, or something" said Sting worriedly.

"Wendy should be somewhere around here to heal your wounds" said Lucy kindly. "Even Sherria could help out."

"You did an amazing job" said Yukino, amazed.

"Yeah" added Lucy. "It's kind of scary how you figured everything out about that guy."

"How did you get an antidote?" asked Victor suddenly.

"Zoe" tried Sting calling her name.

Zoe was thinking about something but she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was. It was something important, though. She ruined Vivien's dress by bleeding all over it. What a pity. She really liked its original colour. Both of her arms really hurt. Arms? Oh, yeah, probably the poison. She started feeling light-headed and her vision was becoming kind of blurry. Suddenly, breathing was also difficult. Maybe she should get some help.

"Zoe" said Sting, gripping her shoulders making her face him. "Zoe, how did you get an antidote?"

"She didn't" said Amelia nervously, arriving to the scene. "She just made an herb potion that can delay the effects."

"What?" the others asked.

"I think…" started Zoe as she looked up at Sting. "I think I'm dying."

"Take her to the infirmary" said Amelia. "Wendy's supposed to be there already with some guards."

With that, Sting picked Zoe up, and with Amelia showing the way, they hastily headed to the infirmary.


	9. I'm Weak and It Shows

**Chapter 9.**

 **I'm Weak and It Shows**

"Just what do you think you're doing?" asked Amelia Zoe as she entered the infirmary.

Zoe was already dressed up in a simple beige and black A-line cocktail dress, her hair simply let down. Her whole left arm was still wrapped up in bandages and she was working on removing some from her right hand without causing herself more pain than necessary.

"Wendy said that she couldn't fully clear the poison from your body. It's likely to linger in there for days, weeks, maybe. Unless you rest, that is" tried Amelia explaining, annoyed.

Looking at Amelia for a second, Zoe stood up and threw the used bandages in the bin then went back to the bed to put on some white sandals. She was really pale, her eyes looked tired and her breathing was heavy, ragged sometimes. She was in no condition to go anywhere but Amelia knew that Zoe was not one for lying in bed for long.

"The doctor said you shouldn't be out of bed for at least a few days. You haven't even been here for an hour. Well, okay. It was maybe a bit more than an hour" she admitted. "Please, the guards got this, you can rest now."

Going to the bathroom to freshen up or at least make herself look presentable, Zoe silently passed by her worrying exceed. She didn't like being alone with her thoughts. Especially not now. Thinking back on how she messed up tonight's mission made her really frustrated. To think that she put Vivi, possibly Victor and the other guests at risk because she was careless. Entrusting Lord Axel to protect Vivi was the stupidest choice she could've ever made. She suspected that Taipan had to have an accomplice from the Principality, she should've assigned some knight from the Kingdom to accompany Vivi for the night. It's a miracle she didn't get hurt. On the other hand, Zoe did, so now everyone attending the banquet saw just how weak she was. She was ashamed of herself. How could she protect anyone when she can't even protect herself? The funny thing is, she knew this was going to happen. She knew she wasn't strong enough for this. She couldn't have done this alone, without Amelia and Wendy both Vivien and she would be dead by now. The fact that her contribution to the plans were a simple potion and a semi-usable technique, and almost her death, made her despise her powerlessness even more.

Honestly, she didn't like being among other people either but right now, being alone seemed an even worse choice. She was also really hungry. Getting something to eat could probably help her recover faster, which also sounded like a solid argument in case someone else tried to tuck her back in bed. Amelia decided to try another method, hoping she can make her stay in bed a bit longer.

"You know Sting really wanted to come and check on you" she said with a suppressed smile. "I can just tell him you are being a bad girl so he could make you stay here."

"You've spent too much time with Vivi and Victor" Zoe said letting out a small laugh. "Pervert."

"Wha-what?" asked Amelia, embarrassed. "That's not what I… Umm…"

"I know" Zoe replied with a tender smile as she walked to Amelia. "So, what did I miss?" she asked as she picked up the exceed and made her way back to the ball room.

"You don't have to carry me, you know" said Amelia, even though she preferred being carried to walking on her own.

"Right, but it's a nice try to reconcile" admitted Zoe making her exceed sigh loudly.

"So what do you remember?" asked Amelia.

"I wanted to tell Victor something" she replied trying to think back. "And I felt really sorry for ruining Vivi's dress."

"You and your priorities…" said Amelia rolling her eyes.

"So, what's up?"

"Well, the guards arrested Lord Axel and Taipan, they were taken to the castle' prison. Victor thanked King Toma and the Kingdom for the contribution. Then Vivi interrupted telling that you and I should be thanked as well and that as soon as you're back from your "treatment", they're gonna tell that you in person. Obviously they had a fight afterward. Victor was pissed that Vivi humiliated him in front of the crowd with her interruption. But then they disappeared together with the King and a bunch of guards. Hmm…Let's see, what was before that... After you told Sting that you're probably dying, he took you to the infirmary.

"Holy crap…" whispered Zoe.

"Exactly. So, Wendy and a doctor worked on you for about an hour. They finished like twenty minutes ago. You should talk to Wendy first and thank her for saving your life. She really did her best to heal you. When I saw her getting tired I thanked her for her help and told her she should leave. She insisted on staying but seeing your condition, you would need maybe two or three days of constant healing to make you feel better, you know. But you have faster metabolism and healing rate than normal people do, anyway."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me."

"I'm not explaining myself."

"It was the best choice you could've made" Zoe stated matter-of-factly.

They walked in silence for a few moments before Amelia spoke again.

"Your transformation was different, right?" she asked. "It didn't seem as destructive as it usually is."

"I transformed only the skin covering the arm" Zoe admitted.

"That's incredible" said Amelia. "How do you stop the transformation at a certain skin depth to avoid significant cellular death? Last time I thought we have to cut your whole arm off and now the muscles were intact. I mean the skin was completely messed up but compared to your previous try…"

"It's still way too dangerous to use" she said sadly. "I just… I can't perfect it."

"Well, it was good enough to impress everyone in there" Amelia said, trying to cheer her up a bit. "You really aroused the interest of many mages and guild masters."

"Is that so" commented Zoe, trying to sound interested.

"Yup. It was really funny. They were all around me asking if we are in a guild yet and if we wanted to join their guilds" Amelia said happily. "And then Sabertooth also joined in, saying how awesome we are and that we are practically considered Sabertooth members, so if we join a guild, it'll be theirs for sure. And do you know who one of their main advocates was? You'll never guess. It was Lector!"

"Is that so?" asked Zoe, now actually with interest.

"Can you believe that? Oh, and then they almost started a fight to decide which guild we should join. You remember Natsu? He's the pink-haired fire dragon slayer boy. He was really excited about fighting you as well, but his guild master and some of his guild members calmed him down a bit. And there was a really nice cat-lady as well! She said we should join their guild so she could pet me all day" said Amelia laughing.

"Well, then we won't join that guild, that's for sure" Zoe replied smiling, making Amelia laugh even more.

"It's not like we would join any of them, anyway" added Amelia. "But it was a good…"

"Would you like to?" interrupted Zoe.

"Pardon?" Amelia asked, confused.

"Do you want to join a guild?"

"I thought you didn't want to commit yourself to any kind of guild, or team until you find him" Amelia said warily.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"That, um… That would be nice. I think I'd like that" she answered shyly.

"Then you should think about which of them we should choose" Zoe replied kindly. She didn't feel like joining a guild but seeing how happy her exceed was about all the fuss around them and the guilds, she felt she could get a bit more used to being around people.

"Okay" whispered Amelia, smiling, hugging Zoe's arm.

"Sooo… I told Sting I'm dying, huh?" Zoe asked a few seconds later, embarrassed.

"You did" smiled Amelia. "You freaked him out pretty bad."

"Oh, my…" whispered Zoe chuckling.

"Don't worry, it wasn't just him. You scared the living shit out of Vivien, Victor, Yukino, Lucy, Wendy, and basically everyone else."

"Not you, though" Zoe said wondering.

"Tsk. Come on, Zoe. You knew this would happen, wouldn't you. You're way too smart to die that easily" said Amelia honestly, making Zoe laugh out loud, that resulted in a coughing fit. Letting Amelia go, she leaned with her right arm against the wall for support.

"It's okay" Zoe said after she calmed her coughing. "I'm okay."

She was not okay. Her head hurt, she felt dizzy, the injuries in her left arm were throbbing and she wasn't sure if she's going to faint or not. She couldn't, though. Breathing was already easier, so closing her eyes, she focused on breathing and calming her rather fast heartbeat. It seemed to help, but she was suddenly brought back to reality when she heard someone talking really close to her.

"Of course you are not okay" said a familiar voice to Zoe as an arm firmly but gently wrapped around her shoulder. "What the hell are you doing here, anyway? You said you were checking on her, not bringing her here."

Opening her eyes, she saw Sting standing next to her, holding her so she could stand without using the wall as a support. Zoe looked at him, examining his features closely: strands of hair loosely hanging over his ear, chiselled jawline, his scarred eyebrow being slowly raised, dark blue eyes… He was looking at Amelia fiercely, but with concern in his eyes. She found him extremely handsome. Then, realising how creepily she must've been staring at him, she looked at Amelia for some kind of reaction or help. Noticing this, Amelia, after glancing at Zoe, held her paws up, pointing at Zoe.

"Don't look at me like that. She was the one who couldn't stay in bed any longer" said Amelia in defence.

"Come on, Zoe" said Sting worriedly, looking at her, holding both her shoulders making her face him. "You're in no condition to walk around on your own."

"No, not really" she admitted, chuckling. "I guess I should ask you if you could accompany me for the rest of the night. If you wouldn't mind babysitting me for a couple of hours, that is."

"No" Sting said suddenly.

Zoe looked at him, smiling, raising her left eyebrow, trying to figure out what he meant by that. Realising how ambiguous that sounded Sting started to feel extremely hot and embarrassed.

"I mean yes, of course" he said quickly, tucking his hands to his pockets awkwardly. "I'll gladly accompany you."

 _What an adorable dork_ , she thought. Letting out a small laugh, she turned and started making her way to the ball room. She felt much better now, both physically and spiritually. Developing feelings for people might not be as bad as she remembered it was.

"Then let's go" she said passing Amelia, who looked kind of surprised seeing the change in Zoe's mood and behaviour.

 _Be it a ball gown, a simple dress or just everyday clothes, she's gorgeous_ , Sting thought, as he started following her.

"Sting" whispered Amelia, grabbing Sting's leg as they walked together a few metres behind Zoe. "Could you please…"

"You shouldn't worry so much about her" said Sting smiling, not taking his eyes off of Zoe. "You know she's stronger than she thinks she is."

Zoe stopped a few steps from the entrance, waiting for Amelia and Sting to catch up with her. Suddenly, she got really nervous thinking about all those unknown people she has to meet and possibly talk to.

"Don't you dare to back out now" Amelia said. "We just walked down on Earthland's longest damn corridor. I am not going back before at least eating something."

"Besides, they can already tell that you're here" added Sting, motioning to the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail, all looking at her, and Rogue and the Sabertooth exceeds making their way toward her.

After the big hugs of the happy exceeds and some kind words from Rogue, she finally built up the courage to enter the room, once again.


	10. Close Enough to Touch

**Chapter 10.**

 **Close Enough to Touch**

Several days have passed since the ball at the Palace and everyone got back to their respective guilds. Vivien and Victor decided to stay in the capital for a few more days which meant that Amelia and Zoe were staying as well. Rufus was really looking forward to their return, as Zoe promised him to drop by and get his long-awaited translation done. Obviously, Rufus was not the only one who was excited about the girls' return. Not only Sting, but the whole guild seemed to fancy the new dragon slayer and her exceed, hoping that one day they can welcome the girls as their new guild members. Amelia was really excited about joining a guild and she talked to many people during the ball to explore their possibilities. Sting could see that Zoe was not a big fan of the idea but he knew what it is like to do something only to see the happy smile of their friends. Especially when it came to their exceeds.

Realising he was just staring and smiling at his paperwork for quite some time now, doing nothing useful, he decided to take a break and get some fresh air. He felt really diligent since they got back from the capital and was able to get loads of work done in the last few days. The others either went on missions or just chilled in the guild, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and that made their guild master feel really happy and proud. He felt that he accomplished something his predecessor couldn't. Still, something was missing and he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

He couldn't, but everyone else in the guild had a pretty good idea what their master was missing. Rather, who he was missing. After discussing the possible match-making ideas, Minerva was the one who decided to help Sting make a move, or at least help him realise what he should do. As she saw their guild master enter the main hall, she set her plan to motion. Well, it was not entirely her plan, it was actually a combination of her, Yukino's and Rufus' plans. Maybe Rogue helped out a bit as well but he would never actually admit that. Currently, he was on his way to get some ice cream for Frosch and Lector, just to make sure the maroon exceed was not at the guild when Minerva talked to Sting. As Minerva, Yukino and Rufus were sitting together, Minerva softly nudged Yukino's shoulder, nodding to both her and Rufus.

"Hi, Sting. How are you doing?" asked Yukino kindly, turning to Sting's direction.

"Hey" he answered, looking around to find his exceed friend. "I'm good, thanks. Have you guys seen Lector?"

"Frosch and him got really excited about this new ice cream parlour" said Rufus smiling. "Rogue offered to take them there, if my memory serves me right."

"Oh, I see" said Sting thinking. "Guess I'll just go after them. I could use a walk or something. Feels like I'm going crazy behind the four walls" said the guild master letting out a small chuckle.

Minerva couldn't believe this. It was as if Sting knew what she wanted to hear and said all the right words. With a small smile, Minerva grabbed the book from the desk and stepped next to Sting.

"Well, if you want to take a walk, maybe you should help poor Rufus out" she said holding out the book for Sting to take. "I've read that Vivi and Victor are already home, so Zoe and Amelia should be back as well."

She meant that she was 100% sure they were back as she went to the inn they reside and checked if they've returned or not. Also, seeing that only Zoe was home she hoped her guild master had better chances in having enough courage to ask the dragon slayer girl out. Looking at her with a weird expression, Sting hesitantly took the book.

"I don't even know where…"

"Here's her address" said Minerva, giving a small piece of paper to him. "I'm not sure about the room number but you can just ask the owner, right?"

"Um… Thanks?" said Sting, unsure of what was happening.

"You're welcome" replied Minerva, already pushing Sting through the main door. "Now go and get her, Tiger."

"Wait, what?" asked Sting, turning back toward his friends. "Did you guys plan this out?"

"I can't hear you" said Minerva, walking back to the silently smiling Yukino and Rufus.

Sting was just standing at the guild entrance, dumbfounded. His own guild mates betrayed him in the most cunning way possible. He wasn't ready for this, yet, he couldn't just walk back to them now. He made a mental note to somehow punish these three in the future for this. He nervously scratched the back of his neck, then with a loud sigh, he made his way to the address Minerva gave him. He felt extremely nervous. What was he supposed to say to Zoe? And Amelia. They will think he's a creep for showing up at their place, especially that he's going there to ask a favour. For someone else. He seriously doubted that his guild mates thought this through properly. He also cursed himself for letting them deceive him so easily, but there was no way he could go back. Minerva would most definitely kick his ass for being too scared to talk to a girl. But if he thought about it, Zoe was not just a girl. Not to him, at least. Seeing how easily Natsu, Gajeel, Gray and the others talked to her during the ball he started to wonder if there was something wrong with him. Something that made him unable to properly express himself in front of Zoe. Then he remembered what Rogue told him after their first meeting with Amelia and Zoe.

"Oh man" he muttered to himself.

Checking the address again, he realised how dangerously close he was to a possibly really awkward encounter with the girls. Given that they were home. A part of him hoped that wasn't the case. Not that he didn't want to see her pretty face, mesmerising eyes, cherry lips, silky brown locks that seemed to be always falling just perfectly… _Stop that, Sting. That's not helping,_ he thought to himself, as he felt a strangely pleasant feeling deep inside.

~v~

Preparing herself the best white coffee she could manage, Zoe lazily stared out the window watching the busy city streets. She was getting a bit bored and lonely all alone, but she needed to take a few days off from life after the ball and the days spent with Vivien and Victor. Those guys weren't able to sit in place for more than 5 damn seconds. They always had to do something or go somewhere, no matter what. During their short stay in Fiore, they dragged her and Amelia around half of the country. Obviously, Zoe wasn't really a big fan of the continuous carriage rides but the Samdé kids were never ones to use their legs. They had to be carried and taken to everywhere they went. And beside all the rides Zoe had to endure, they had to visit crowded places. Where they could meet some interesting people. For some reason, when someone told Zoe that something was interesting, she immediately assumed that the mentioned thing was in fact not interesting at all. She felt like it's kind of like false advertising. She ranted about that issue when they were on a tour with Amelia a few months ago but she didn't seemed to share her views. Anyway, the last few days included just way too much human interaction for her, especially considering all the new people she had to meet and talk to. Also, Amelia told her not to wander off alone until she is completely healed. She was feeling just fine but Amelia insisted on making her rest for at least a few more days. And, to be honest, Zoe didn't mind staying home, reading, taking long baths, she even started practicing on the ukulele she got during their travels. It was such a funny little instrument and it sounded really cool. She still preferred playing the piano, but there was no way she could fit one into this little place that a) wasn't their own, b) they lived in for free and c) had so many neighbours who would probably get pissed about the noise.

She felt like going out today. Though, only to get some groceries. After a relaxing bath, she started making a list about the things she needed to get. _Coffee_ , _obviously,_ _some of those fish-sticks Amelia liked, eggs, do we have any paper in here?_ That's right. She should drop by at Sabertooth someday but probably only with Amelia around. Zoe was brought up, at least partially, by a dragon, she had fought against unspeakably powerful, terrifying monsters and beasts; she had been on the verge of death more times that she would admit. Yet, she was simply creeped out by the idea of going out to meet people without Amelia around. The idea of attending that ball was a complete nightmare to her. The only thing that made it more tolerable was that Sting was with her all night. And Amelia, of course.

"Dammit" she said with a sigh.

This guy's turning her world upside down and she wasn't sure that it's a good thing or not. Well, she felt rather pleasant when he was around but she knew that she was putting him at risk. Not just him, his whole guild. And if something happened to any of them, she would be the one to blame. She was starting to regret her decision in agreeing to join a guild. Great job in risking so many people's lives, Zoe. You leave nothing but destruction behind no matter where you go or what you do. But just thinking about joining a guild made Amelia feel so happy. Suddenly, there was a silent, unsure knock on the front door and she smelled a familiar scent in the air. Her mind must be playing tricks on her. Why on earth would Sting come to her place?

"Coming" she shouted.

~v~

Sting was contemplating on the origin of all the thing he could smell in the inn. It seemed that the weirdest kinds of people were residing here so he didn't understand what Zoe and Amelia would do in this place. Asking the lady behind the counter for the room number, she even offered to give him the keys with a wink and a sly smirk. With a nervous laugh, he just thanked her kindness and made his way to the first floor. The door on the far left side was Room 106. That's it. He wasn't sure that him being here was a good idea but now was not the time to back out. Or maybe it was just the best time to back out. Come on, Sting, you weren't this nervous when you fought against an army of dragons. That was a scary situation. Compared to that, this is just a nice walk in a park. Working up the courage, or something like that, he raised his hand to knock. Maybe he shouldn't disturb them. What if they're in the middle of something important? They might not even be here. He should've asked that lady if they're home. _That's enough, you dumbass_ , he thought as he finally knocked on the door and the sudden answer startled him.

"Coming" he heard Zoe shouting.

That was the moment he started panicking. He had no idea what to do or what to say. He was not prepared for this situation. He suddenly forgot how to breathe properly and he was getting light-headed. His mind went black, he felt his stomach twisting and the colour draining from his face. As the door opened, and unfamiliar, yet extremely nice smell filled his nose. And there she was. She had a white tank top and denim shorts on. Her hair was slightly damp as she stood there barefoot. And her scent was the most heavenly thing Sting has ever experienced. She looked at him with a surprised but happy face and he felt all his worries melt away.

"It's nice to see you again" Sting said with a confident smile without thinking.

"I… Um…" said Zoe struggling with her words. "Yeah. It's nice to see you, too. Come in."

"I hope I didn't interrupt you guys" said Sting with an apologetic tone as he stepped inside.

"Amelia's not home" replied Zoe as she closed the door and showed the way to the living room area. "And I wasn't doing anything important. Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, thank you. I just wanted to drop by to see how you're doing" lied Sting.

Well, it wasn't particularly a lie. Though, he was kind of pressured to do so before he could muster up the courage to do it on his own. He was thinking about her a lot. Daydreaming, rather.

"Come on. You came all the way just to check on me and won't even let me make a tea for you?" asked Zoe in an over-exaggerated sad voice, making Sting nervously chuckle with his eyes downcast. "Have you ever heard of Dragon Well Green Tea?"

As she casually strolled into her small kitchen area, which was actually part of the living room stopped divided by some counters and a table, Sting followed her to the series of counters. Resting his arms on one of them, he closely watched her every movement. Not that he was particularly interested in tea making, but he just couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"You can just leave it in there" she said looking at the book in Sting's hand.

"Oh, right. Thank you" he said. "On Rufus' behalf, as well."

"He must be pretty excited about it" she said, smiling. "So, how are you guys doing?"

And to answer her question, Sting started to talk about everything that came to his mind. He told her about the recent jobs his guild mates were on, some of the things he had to take care of as guild master, how poor Frosch almost got lost when they went to get some arrangements done to get the heating in the dorm repaired and basically everything that happened to him and his friends in the last couple of days. And she just listened to all his stories watching his eyes glisten with excitement and happiness. As he was in the middle of a story about one of the possible improvement in the guild's infrastructure he was thinking about, they've heard a soft scratching noise coming from the window.

Before they could prepare for the incoming attack, several fist-sized smoke bombs penetrated through the windows and walls of the room, making part of the room's structure collapse and filling the air with dust and a smoky yellow gas. Feeling dizzy and weak, both dragon slayers fell to the ground as they slowly lost consciousness.

Sting was awakened by the force of two pairs of hands pulling him out of the remains of Room 106. He felt dizzy, really nauseous and it felt like every muscle of his body hurt. It took him a few seconds to realise what was happening around him. He heard some familiar voices calling out, but his brain didn't seem to function properly when it came to distinguishing the voices from each other.

"Dammit" he grunted as he was helped to his feet by Rogue and Orga.

"Sting?" sniffled Lector.

"Are you okay?" he heard Yukino asking in a concerned voice.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Rogue.

Sting looked around, confused. Yukino, Lector and Frosch were standing in front of him while Rogue and Orga were still next to him, making sure he's capable of standing on his own. He saw that the room was a mess, most of the ceiling fell down and the walls with the windows collapsed. Thinking back, he remembered continuously talking to Zoe and then everything went yellow and then black.

"Where is she?" Sting asked. "Where is Zoe?"

"I guess it's up to you to find her" they heard Amelia's comment.

Turning to her direction, they saw her standing in front of a still intact wall with a sign written with red paint:

'CAN YOU FiND HER iN TiME?'


	11. Live With Ghosts

**Chapter 11.**

 **Live With Ghosts**

Zoe was awake for quite some time now. To be honest, she woke up before the guys kidnapping her could actually take her to their hideout. But she felt really sick and tired so she decided not to do anything for the time being. She guessed that they were flying on the back of some kind of animal. She did feel sick, but not motion-sickness sick so it must be the side effect of that gas from before. She thought about eavesdropping on the enemy's conversation, so maybe she could get some useful information from these guys on what their motivation is, who they are or something along those lines. However, nobody said anything the whole time she was awake. She thought that maybe they knew she was conscious, but hearing one of the men burping loudly made her think that these were just some low-IQ grunts who had nothing to actually talk about. She was right about that. So she was just lying there wondering who might've ordered them to take her. She didn't really know anyone who would hire mercenaries, especially mercenaries like these to kidnap her while creating such a big scene. The people who would actually try to harm her have much more sophisticated methods to do so. This seemed such a simple and crude method that Zoe started thinking if it was actually one of her enemies. Maybe they're the enemies of Sabertooth and have no idea who she was. Maybe they accidentally confused her with one of the guild members. As she was getting more aware of her situation, she realised that only her hands are tied together with a simple rope. Yup… They definitely didn't know who she was. _This is going to be a fun afternoon_ , she thought.

They landed. Zoe felt the others getting off and directing her carrier inside. It was considerably colder, the air smelled damp and mouldy and there was something else. She recognised it. Aquamarine. She kinda liked the taste of it so she got pretty excited about getting some later on. Finally she heard some people talking but that didn't really help her out. Nobody seemed to talk about who they worked for or what their plans were. Mostly tough-guy talk and stupid stuff, making Zoe grow impatient. She was waiting for something exciting to happen but the only thing she got was pain as she hit the ground.

Grunting, she opened her eyes, thinking about getting up and beating the shit out of everyone she comes across. To her surprise, she found herself on the ground surrounded by two super buffed guys and a young boy, latter seemingly just as surprised as she was.

"You're not from Sabertooth" the young boy said, looking at her with wide eyes.

"She was with the guild master" said one of the big guys.

"He was at her house" added the other.

"How do you know Sting Eucliffe?" asked the boy Zoe.

"I…" she stopped for a second, thinking. "He offered me a job. Kind of. I was supposed to translate a book for his friend."

"You guys are idiots" he screamed. "You took an innocent girl. She has no connection with that bastard."

"You just wanted him to come here" argued the first guy. "Does it matter who the bait is?"

"It does" he hissed in response. "I want him to suffer. And to be able to do that, we need one of his friends here."

Seeing that his explanations didn't really make sense to the two grunts, he just sighed and pointed toward one of the dark shafts.

"Get out. I'll take care of her."

After they disappeared, the young boy stepped closer to Zoe with a somewhat calmer and kinder expression.

"I'm terribly sorry on behalf of these grunts" he said. "Nobody's ever taught them good manners."

"Are they your men?" Zoe asked, looking at the young boy in confusion as he was untying her hands.

"Well, you can say that, I guess" he said with a sad smile. "What's your name?"

Holding her wrists where the ropes had been, she just looked at the boy and then around herself. They were in a cave. Looked more like a mine, actually. She could see and smell raw gems all around and she really wanted to collect some. She didn't even remember when was the last time she had some nice gems to eat and now she was craving to have some.

"Please, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you" he said, offering a kind smile and his hands to help her up. "My name is Gabe."

"Zoe" she replied simply with her eyes now fixed on him, accepting his helping hand.

Right. She was supposed to be a damsel in distress now. Drooling over gems shouldn't be something she should do now. Maybe a bit later. The most important task was to figure out what their plan is when Sting, and possibly the other guild members get here.

"I'm sorry that you were dragged into this" he said with honest sadness in his voice. "Jeez, you don't even have shoes on. Aren't you cold? I can try to find a blanket or something."

"Why do you hate him so much?" she asked the straightforward question, making Gabe dumbstruck.

"Because he's a monster" he replied, finally. "He and everyone in that damn guild are."

She didn't answer. She didn't really understand what he meant but she had the feeling that he will tell her, no matter if she asks him to elaborate or not. Bad guys always liked to tell their stories to others, especially just before they were ready to carry out their plans.

"Since when do you know them?" he asked, as he started walking to a shaft, motioning her to follow him.

This one had proper lights in it, as if it were used just recently. The air also smelled a bit clearer and there was something else Zoe felt. She wasn't sure what it was but it wasn't natural. It was filled with strange magic power and made her feel somewhat anxious.

"Few weeks. Little over a month, perhaps" she replied, making him chuckle.

"Well then, I wouldn't say you actually know Sabertooth. Not the real Sabertooth. They might be acting all nice and fun now, but I've seen their true nature" he said with an anger-filled voice. "They've done terrible things in the past. Evil things. And if they were capable of doing those back then, they could do it anytime they wish to. I can see it in their eyes."

This guy was rambling like a mad man and that made Zoe feel even more uneasy. So much pain, anger and hatred was in this guy she could practically feel it. Smell it. And it was slowly starting to fill her nose and cloud her thoughts and judgement. Yeah, that's what she needed right now, going on a rampage in a mine because she was affected by some rando's feelings.

"They leave behind nothing but destruction" she heard him saying as she focused back on him.

"We all make mistakes" she breathed out unsurely.

"Mistakes?" he asked calmly. "Stealing an apple as a kid is a mistake. Breaking your mom's favourite vase is a mistake. Annihilating whole villages for no reason is pure evil."

Well, she wasn't prepared for that. She wasn't really familiar with the guilds in Fiore, so she didn't actually knew anything about the past of these people. She'd only learnt about the dis- and reappearance of Fairy Tail members during the ball. She'd always had other things to worry about, so she just didn't feel like bothering with everybody else's problems before.

"That's right" he hissed, as he told her the extremely detailed story of his village being wiped out by the twin dragon slayers.

She was confused. She didn't understand many things about his story, some names were completely unfamiliar to her. Not just because she's bad with names. But apparently the previous guild master was a really terrifying and strong, tyrannical figure. And also Sabertooth consisted of heartless murderers, which she had a hard time believing. Walking to a rather spacious part of the cave system, her eyes wandered to something unnatural and huge formation.

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay here" he said as Zoe slowly walked into a barred little space he was motioning to. "It'll be safer for you here, I promise."

"I've never seen anything like this" she said looking at the giant spiral-like device.

"I made it" he said somewhat proudly. "Everything. Blueprints, materials, construction, all done by me. I thought I'll never finish."

"Incredible" she breathed out.

"You think so?" he asked excitedly. "It took so much time and effort to come up with the actual shape and the perfect material to use…"

She heard Gabe still rambling about the construction of this device as he walked toward it, but all she could think was how such talented people like him could go astray. He was so young, yet, his heart was full of hatred and pain. Nobody deserved to go through such painful experience that he had to. She felt like her heart was breaking, seeing another young boy being corrupted and giving in to the darkness. She wasn't gonna let that happen this time.

"So I'll use this Etherion-filled stone to power up my defence system. It'll hold them back while the weapon is charged to eliminate them once and for all" he said in a grievous voice.

"It's a gem, actually" she stated.

"It doesn't matter" he said, annoyed.

She just looked at him, raising her right eyebrow. Of course, it mattered. If someone asked her to eat a gem, she would be glad to do so. On the other hand, if she was asked to eat a stone, she would probably make the person eat the said stone.

"Is there an escape route?" she asked as she absentmindedly scanned the machinery in front of her.

"Pardon?" replied Gabe, perplexed, glancing back at her for a second.

"Is there any way you can escape?" she asked.

"Me?" he laughed. "I'm not planning on escaping. If everything goes according to plan, I'll kill everyone from Sabertooth. Hopefully. I'll try my best. If not… Then I'm ready to fight until I die."

"Are you" she said in a sarcastic tone.

"Look, I've treated you with utmost respect and hospitality because you shouldn't be here. I made a mistake. And I don't know what your deal is but if you keep acting like this I'll…" he stopped when he turned back to look at her.

"You were right" she said, standing right in front of him.

"How did you get out?" he asked jerking away from her.

"You've made a mistake" she continued.

"What?" he asked with a nervous, frightened laugh. "That I wanted to fight against Sabertooth? That I took you here?"

"That you chose vengeance as your only purpose in life" she said, looking at him with sympathetic eyes.

"It was my only choice" he shouted. "They were the ones who killed everyone I loved."

"Yeah" she replied. "But you were the one who couldn't move on without taking revenge. I'm not sure you've even tried. There's so much hatred in you. Hatred that you caressed all these years just so you could kill even more people."

"Someone has to take revenge on those heartless bastards. They killed people just for fun."

"Things are never as simple as they seem. You don't know how others feel, what their motivation is, or the reasons behind their acts. The real reasons…" she tried persuading him.

"There is no reason that justifies what they did."

"So you think what you're planning to do is justified?" she asked in a harsher voice.

"They deserve to die" Gabe screamed, now, with teary eyes.

"Don't we all?" she said, wondering, as she heard some of the guards approaching.

"Just stop defending them" he hissed. "You don't know what they're capable of."

"I'm not defending anyone. And you're right. I don't know them. Most importantly, I don't know who they used to be. But I believe that people can change" she stopped, eyes wandering to the emptiness of the caves. "And I know that deep inside, we're all monsters. It's up to us to let this monster overpower us or to keep it where it should be. Chained down in the deepest pits of our souls."

Seeing his questioning, confused eyes, she felt that it's now or never to change this poor boy's life. She wasn't really good with words, especially when she had to talk about personal things, emotions but she was determined to save Gabe from the darkness, from death, from himself.

"Look, Gabe…" she said, placing her hands on the sides of the boy's face, looking deeply into his eyes. "This time, you have a choice. You are a smart, bright and kind person. You could be capable of doing amazing things. You should plan things that benefit to mankind, not hurt them. You just have to overcome your fears and pain."

Seeing some grunts enter the cave they were standing, she looked at Gabe one last time, with tear-filled eyes.

"Please, don't let the ghosts of your past haunt you to death" she managed to whisper.

~v~

"The lack of capitalisation on the 'i's is really bugging me" said Amelia, annoyed.

"How can you think about things like that, Amelia" asked Yukino, surprised.

"Yeah! You should be concerned about Zoe's safety!" said Lector.

"Don't get me wrong, guys. I am concerned" she said, pausing for a split second. "But it's not her well-being that concerns me."

Seeing the puzzled expressions of everyone's faces, she sighed loudly before continuing.

"Come on, these guys are obviously idiots and have no idea who she is. Just think about it for a second. They destroyed the room of an insanely strong dragon slayer who was accompanied by the guild master of Sabertooth, who is by the way another really powerful dragon slayer. Then they write this stupid message with red paint, because… I don't know, red is such a scary colour? What even… Did they really think that we will think it's blood and get scared? And I can assure you that Zoe is a rather calm person but there are two kinds of people that can really get on her nerves: those who try to hurt her friends and the really dumb ones. You've already seen some of the result of the first one" said Amelia looking at the twin dragon slayers as they approached the remains of an old mining site.

Just as she said that, they could feel the ground beneath their feet shake and they heard a strange rumbling noise. A second later they saw a huge tornado emerge from underground, ripping stones and massive clods of earth from the ground. Seeing the debris, some people and small crystals falling to the ground, all of them was struck by the same thought.

"Zoe" Amelia whispered in a low voice.

Quickening their pace, they arrived the site of destruction within a few minutes. Most of the mine shafts were completely exposed, many injured, seemingly unsavoury characters were lying all over the place, moaning and grunting in pain. Amelia feared the worst: finding out that Zoe went postal again. Especially with the others around, she wouldn't know how to make her stop without hurting someone. Then they saw her. She was just standing in front of the remains of some destroyed mechanism, her back to them. She seemed tired and hurt, some bruises and cuts on her legs, messy hair, blood trailing down on her right arm.

"Zoe" Sting shouted as he and Rogue started making his way toward her, when Amelia grabbed Rogue's cloak.

"Wait" she said with a scared voice, making both boys look at her with a questioning look. "Just… just, be careful."

Zoe heard that and tears started welling up in her eyes again. Her own exceed was afraid of her and Zoe could understand why. She did have some pretty bad anger management problems in the past but she was working on them for Amelia's sake. She would do anything for her. Still, she knew she knew it wasn't good enough. She wasn't good enough. She was wondering if there was a way she would be the kind of person who deserves her exceed's love. Or anyone's love.

"All I ever do is screw up" she mumbled to herself in the tiniest voice.

Still, not tiny enough for the blonde dragon slayer behind her to not hear it. He didn't understand why she would say something like that. He also didn't understand Amelia's cautious behaviour. But they all had secrets and past mistakes they didn't want to talk about and he assumed this should be something along those lines.

"Zoe?" Sting said as he stepped one step closer to her, already standing right behind her. He placed his left hand on her right shoulder, hoping to make her turn to him. "Are you hurt?"

A part of her didn't want Sting to see her like this. Weak, pathetic, worthless, lost… On the other hand, she just wanted him to hold her. She wanted tell him everything that's been on her mind. But that was never going to happen, and right now she wasn't in a condition to fight her tears back. Too many memories and emotions filled her mind and heart. She didn't respond, just turned her head slightly to his direction, eyes fixed on the ground.

The sight of her sad, teary eyes made Sting act on instinct. He didn't have time to think about what to do, and even if he had, he was sure he would've done the same thing. He had no idea what made her feel so sad but he knew that he's not going to let this happen to her ever again. That he will do everything he can to make her smile again. Forcing her to turn around, he placed his hands on her waist and her back, and pulled her to his chest, hugging her tightly.

~v~

Standing on the top of a cliff far away from Zoe and the others, Gabe just arrived to meet two tall, shady figures.

"You did a great job. I'm sure Master will be pleased by your performance" said the one who was wearing some rather elegant clothes

"I did my best" Gabe replied. "But she's not ready yet."

"She's getting there" the third one replied. "But those other mages might be troublesome."

"Don't worry" said the elegant one with a sly smile. "I have a great idea."

"I hope it starts with getting rid of these stupid butler clothes, Dema" said Gabe sarcastically.

"I'm afraid, not" he replied with an evil grin, before they all just vanished.


	12. Show You What a Girl Is

**Chapter 12**

 **Show You What a Girl Is**

Sting's been really moody lately, so Minerva and Rogue decided to take him out on a mission they've wanted to go on for a few weeks now. Obviously, the train ride wasn't helping in lifting their master's mood, but hopefully the change of scenery and the possibility of a good fight will make him feel better. They didn't really understand what his deal was right now, because unlike any other times, he was not talking about it. Even though Rogue tried to initiate a conversation many times and Minerva threatened to beat his sassy ass if he doesn't sort things out, he just remained silent.

As they arrived to the small village whose mayor was the one requesting help, they were happy to see how kind the villagers were to them. However, it seemed that they didn't really like the mayor himself. Asking for directions from a merchant, he initiated a short conversation with them.

"Are you here to get the girls back?" he asked.

"Well, we don't know all the details yet, but I assume so" replied Minerva politely.

"The mission request didn't tell much about the actual situation" added Rogue with a slight suspicion in his voice.

"I see" the merchant replied sadly.

"Maybe you could tell us more about it" said Minerva with a small smile.

"I don't know much about it" he admitted. "Nobody does. But over fifteen girls've gone missing during the last few months, just from our village. They were here one day, gone the next."

"Fifteen just from this village?" asked Sting in disbelief. "The request didn't say anything about this. How come it's not a higher severity mission then?"

"The mayor doesn't think it's that serious" he said angrily. "He said they just ran away. He said hiring mages is just a waste of the community's money. And many people thought like that, too. But after the 4th and 5th disappearances, many of us started to believe it's something else. Good girls went missing. Girls who wouldn't just run away."

"Did anyone else investigate the disappearances?" asked Rogue.

"Everyone is too afraid to do so here" he replied. "There are some people who posted their own job requests, you know. Some tried to get officers and independent mages to come here, as well. But you're the first ones to accept the job, as far as I know. You will accept the job, right?"

"Yeah" said Sting before the other could answer. "Don't worry. We'll get your girl back, too. Come on, guys. There's no time to waste."

"How did you…?" the merchant started asking with teary eyes, but couldn't finish his sentence.

The Sabertooth members were already on their way to the town hall, Sting and Lector leading the way, followed by Rogue and Minerva smiling at their master's determination, and Frosch happily watching them.

Their conversation with the mayor was one of the most unpleasant experience they've ever had. And they definitely had many of those in the past. But things were different back then. It felt strange being the helpful and kind ones and the client being an absolute douchebag. It was just like that merchant said. The mayor didn't really care about those missing girls, he even tried to persuade the mages that there was no mission, really. He just posted that to make the villagers stop complaining. They felt like punching the guy in the face, but that wouldn't help getting those missing girls back. In the end, they decided to investigate the nearby woods. As it turned out, there was an abandoned, factory-like building in the north, which sounded like a place they should also check out. As it was pretty late, they stayed in a small inn for the night. The innkeeper lady didn't even want to take their money, she was so happy to see someone caring about their problems. The Sabertooth mages rose with the first rays of sunshine and headed out, in order to solve this mystery.

~v~

It was pretty early in the morning, when Amelia and Zoe arrived to the wooden gate of a small cottage, which was their current destination. As they often helped out international organisations and various companies, it was no surprise that they got many job offers. But Zoe was always really picky about these jobs. Amelia sometimes couldn't really understand the basis on which she choose them but in the end, they always turned out to be good choices. She didn't seem to care about the money offered, or the possible fame and respect. Amelia often thought Zoe had some kind of sixth sense to pick jobs that were either connected to her brother's case or were just simply the most desperate people crying for help. Their current client, the Yenda family sent a letter to them asking them to find their daughter. Going through the gate, they saw the house door opening.

"My prayers have been heard" they heard a lady say from the window as a middle-aged man stepped out of the house. "Invite them in, Love."

The Yendas were a nice, modest couple, whose daughter disappeared a few weeks ago. Apparently, she wasn't the only one. Someone or something has been taking young girls from the village for almost a year. Zoe already had some ideas what could've happened to the girls but from the information the clients told her, she couldn't possibly determine which of her theories was right. She asked some questions about their daughter, Nina: what kind of person she was, if she had many friends, what she liked doing. She checked out Nina's room, clothes, the products she used, checked if she had a diary. After that, they decided to leave and start looking for her. The best hint the couple could give her was to visit and old abandoned building in the north. Everybody seemed to be afraid of that place, and supposedly, it was haunted by many evil spirits. _Fantastic._ When they wanted to talk about the financial issues, Zoe simply said they shouldn't worry about it.

"So, are we heading north?" Amelia asked as they were leaving the house.

"I guess so" she mumbled.

There were so many scents around this place. Some seemed familiar to Zoe and she found some of them really disturbing and pretty gross. Suddenly, she got an idea.

"Excuse me" she turned back. "Can we borrow two scarfs?"

"Scarfs?" asked Mrs. Yenda, surprised. "Sure, Darling."

~v~

"Can you smell this?" asked Rogue from Sting.

"You mean this sweet scent?" asked Minerva. "Even I can smell this. It's disgusting."

"Well, the closer we got here, the stronger it got" said Sting, looking over the abandoned building. "Be careful in there."

With that, they entered the building. Many of the corridors were already in such a bad condition, that they didn't even try to go through it. Somewhere on the third floor, they got to a corridor that lead to a more spacious area. As they slowly approached it, the smell got even stronger and they could hear a low buzzing noise.

"Prepare yourselves" said Sting.

As they got to the entrance to the aforesaid area, the exceeds slowed down and let the others go in first. As Minerva stepped in there, she saw a huge container with some thick, pink liquid inside.

"What an earth is that goo in there?" she asked, looking behind at the dragon slayers behind her.

"What the hell?" said Sting, holding his nose.

"What are you guys doing? Come over here" said Minerva, trying to scold the boys.

"It seems we can't enter there" said Rogue as he touched the invisible barrier keeping them in the corridor.

"But I could come through just fine" wondered Minerva, taking a few steps back, trying to pass the barrier, and failing at it.

"It's a one-way entrance, my dear" said a voice behind her. "And it's only for girls who want to be pretty."

 _"_ _What's wrong with your face?"_

 _"_ _Poor girl, she must feel pretty bad about her looks."_

 _"_ _How can she look in the mirror?"_

 _"_ _Don't you know how to apply make-up properly?"_

"Behind you, Minerva" shouted Sting.

 _"_ _She doesn't look like a proper lady at all."_

 _"_ _Are you really a girl?"_

 _"_ _You should lose some weight, you know."_

But Minerva didn't move. She knew someone was behind her and she knew she was in danger like this. But she was more focused on listening. She heard voices talking to her. At least she thought they were talking to her.

 _"_ _You'll never get a boyfriend like this."_

 _"_ _You could scare kids with that face."_

 _"_ _He can help you."_

 _"_ _He made me beautiful, too."_

"Minerva?" said Rogue, looking at her unfocused eyes. "Can you hear me?"

 _"_ _That hairstyle is so lame."_

 _"_ _Why don't you have some cute clothes on?"_

 _"_ _You're so ugly. Why don't you just die?"_

 _"_ _He is your only chance to be pretty."_

"She can. But she doesn't need you anymore, right?" the man asked, slowly walking to Minerva. "I'm all you need."

 _"_ _You're worthless without him."_

 _"_ _He can make you perfect."_

 _"_ _He will make you perfect."_

 _"_ _Stay here with us."_

"You're all I need" said Minerva with a monotonous voice.

"Snap out of it, Minerva" shouted Sting, but a sudden movement from behind made him turn around.

"They are the ones who came to me before, you know" the man said with a toothy grin, gently grabbing Minerva's hand. "They just want to be pretty. Not just pretty. Perfect. So I make them perfect."

Looking back, the dragon slayers and the exceeds saw at least two dozens of girls approaching them. All of them wore ridiculous clothes, had the same haircut, hair colour, and had an astonishing amount of make-up on. All of them had some kind of weapon in their hands, be it a sword or a simple rake.

"Are these the missing girls?" whispered Rogue to Sting.

"I think so" he replied.

"We can't fight them" Rogue stated the obvious.

"Well, I'm heading to my studio with your friend, here. I'm afraid you won't be alive when we get back. This might take a while. But you can't complain, really. You will be killed by a bunch of beautiful ladies, am I right?" the man laughed.

"So, what now?" asked Rogue.

"I don't know" mumbled Sting, trying to think of something really fast. "We have to break this barrier somehow. That's the only chance we…"

"Crystal Dragon's Double-Sword Cut" they heard as a square-shaped ceiling piece fell down a few metres away from Minerva and the mysterious man, with Zoe standing on top of it.

"Oh my, another lady who wants to be pretty?" the man asked, seeing her outlines in the dust.

"No, thank you" she replied, stepping in the direction of the big container. "I'm good."

"Oh, I'm sure I can help you become a perfect girl, just like the others" he grinned, stepping closer to her figure, leaving Minerva behind.

"Is that what you think a girl is?" she asked menacingly, motioning toward the marching girl horde.

He didn't understand why she hasn't turned into a mindless zombie like all the other girls did. As the dust almost settled, the man could finally see Zoe in front of him.

"What? You…" he said, backing down. "You have a mask on?"

"It's actually an enchanted scarf" said Amelia with another scarf on, flying down, grabbing Minerva and lifting her up. "But basically, it functions as a mask, yeah."

"What?" he screamed trying to run after them. "Stop right there."

"Crystal Dragon's" Zoe started, running toward the strange container, "Diamond Claw."

As the container was shredded to pieces, the goo inside it evaporated in an instant, destroying the barrier holding the dragon slayer duo back, and making the girls regain control over their minds and bodies. _Poor guy,_ Zoe, thought. Now he's facing two really angry dragon slayers, an even angrier Minerva, and a bunch of super angry girls. Looking over the crowd of girls, she started smiling as she spotted the one she was looking for.

~v~

"We can't thank you enough for saving out little Nina" said Mr. Yenda, handing over a bouquet of beautiful purple tulips to Zoe.

"It was our pleasure to help you out" Amelia replied, smiling.

"By the way" started Zoe, "can you give me some paper and a pen?"

"Well, sure" said Mrs. Yenda, then ran inside. Rummaging through some drawers, she found what she was looking for and went back outside. "Here you go."

"In case you or anyone else needs help in the village" Zoe said while scribbling something on the paper, "send your requests to this address."

"Oh, you're not taking missions anymore?" asked Mrs. Yenda, worriedly.

"I do" Zoe replied, handing the paper and pen over. "But this is where you can find me in the future."

"I see" she sighed, taking the paper and pen back. "I was afraid you're quitting or something."

"Nah" Zoe replied, halfway through the small gate. "I'm just moving on. Take care."

With that and a small wave, Zoe and Amelia left the property. Mr. and Mrs. Yenda looked at each other for a second before they examined the piece of paper.

"What a strange couple" Mrs. Yenda said. "But they are really nice girls."

"Sabertooth, huh" wondered Mr. Yenda. "Never heard that she was in a guild."

~v~

"She manages to sweep me off my feet every time we meet. And I'm just standing there, staring at her like a useless idiot, wondering what I could do to win her heart" Sting said, watching her saying goodbye to the Yenda family.

"So that's why you acted so weird lately" said Minerva, resting her back on a nearby tree.

Rogue stayed silent as he also looked at Zoe. He could somewhat understand what Sting meant. She was an extraordinary person. Strange and unpredictable, but in a positive way. It seemed like she was trying to hide it, but she was a really kind and caring person. She was strong, intelligent, but really awkward sometimes. Not to mention that she was truly a sight to behold. Though, Rogue himself thought of her as a younger sister. Like a little dragon sister. Not that he knew if she was younger than he was, but he didn't really care about that. Still, he felt they had some kind of connection. He felt that she belonged to Sabertooth.

"So, are you going to ask them to join us?" he said, seemingly out of nowhere, making Sting look at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" Sting asked. "Going back to the inn?"

"Moron" Rogue sighed. "Join us. Join Sabertooth. You should be the one asking her."

Sting couldn't utter a single word and even Minerva seemed speechless. Rogue's straightforwardness was no news to Sting, especially when it was just the two of them talking, but this was not something he'd expect his partner to tell him. And what's worse, he knew that Rogue was right, he should be the one asking them to join. Being a guild master and all. Because that's why he said that, right? Right?

"Oh man" said Sting, scratching the back of his head.

"You're already back from the mayor?" asked Amelia.

"Well, he tried to get rid of us as soon as he could. And we didn't feel like being around him any longer than necessary, either" admitted Minerva.

"And where are Fro and Lector?" she asked again.

"The old lady in the inn really wanted to get them some fish. She said they are the cutest little guys she's ever seen" said Rogue, smiling.

"Are you guys done here? Did you get your payment for the mission?" asked Minerva, ready to go to pack up.

"You can say that…" murmured Amelia, as they made their way to the inn the Sabertooth mages stayed the night. "She asked for a bouquet of flowers."

"Tulips" Zoe corrected her.

"Um… That's…" started Rogue.

"Well, now I feel bad for getting paid by the mayor" said Sting. "It was you who did the hard part of the job."

"And basically, you guys saved me as well" admitted Minerva.

"That's what I meant, you know" said Amelia looking at Zoe, furrowing her brows. "I still don't understand why you didn't ask for at least a symbolic amount of jewels. To cover the train tickets or something."

"We'll gladly share the reward with you guys" said Rogue.

"That's the least we could do" added Sting.

"Can you imagine the happiness of getting your loved one back, unharmed, after you thought you already lost them?" Zoe asked no one in particular.

Oh, Sting could. Remembering the day when he thought he lost Lector always made his heart ache and his stomach tighten. But then he always remembers getting him back, he remembers the glory and strength of Fairy Tail who showed them what true friendship is capable of. And Zoe reminded her all of that. Not with this exact sentence, but her whole being. And right there, at that moment he decided he needs her in his life. He'll do everything to make her his, and never let her go.

"Is there a better reward then seeing the true happiness of these people, knowing it's the result of your actions?" Zoe said, wondering.

"Zoe" Sting said, stepping closer to her and grabbing her hand.

She stopped turning back to face him with a surprised face. Sting was looking at her with a shy but determined look and Zoe couldn't quite place it. So she just looked at him with a kind of questioning look, waiting for him to continue.

"I know that some of us have already told you guys about this, but I didn't get the chance to do so. Yet. But, if you guys are still thinking about joining a guild and… Um… If you haven't chosen one yet, as the guild master of Sabertooth, I'd like to officially invite you and Amelia" he said looking down at the exceed for a moment "to join our guild. I mean… If you've already decided to join another…"

"Alright" Zoe replied without hesitation.

"… guild that's… Excuse me?"

"We gladly accept your invitation" said Amelia, smiling.


	13. Better In Stereo

**Chapter 13**

 **Better In Stereo**

A few days have passed since they announced to join Sabertooth but they still had to meet some of their previous employers to inform them about their new situation. As many of them didn't want guilds to handle their problems, Zoe expected a huge decrease in the number of future job offers. But she didn't really mind that. Thinking of Amelia's happiness when she talked about joining a guild made Zoe care less about these weirdos and their issues. Though, Zoe wasn't sure if she completely understood the basic ideas of what being a guild member meant. For example, why they had to sit at the guild rather than home when they had nothing to do. Figuratively speaking. They had things to do right now, but rather than doing them home, Amelia insisted on going to the guild to do them. Not to mention, she wasn't willing to get out of their apartment until Zoe wore 'proper' clothes. Which apparently meant black denim shorts, thigh-high, lace up boots, a loose black and white striped T-shirt and a black leather jacket. And definitely not the stuff Zoe wanted to put on. She took her daggers, too. Obviously, Amelia thought there was no reason to do so, but it made Zoe feel more at ease. After getting a wallpaper sample book and grabbing their mail at the post office, they headed to Sabertooth.

"Why don't we get mail like normal people do?" asked Amelia. "You know, we have an address. A mailbox. All you need to get your mail delivered."

Zoe sometimes wondered if any of her actions have ever pleased her exceed. She seemed to find problems with everything she did. And she just loved asking the same question numerous times, even though she already knew the answer. Perhaps she thought that annoying her with repeating them would make Zoe change her mind about them. That worked sometimes, Zoe had to admit it. Like when Amelia complained about a skull painting Zoe really liked being weird and scary for about a month. So Zoe decided to get rid of it, no matter how cool she thought it looked. But maybe she just liked complaining. Zoe's thought about asking her about it once when she was in a particularly angry mood. Thankfully, she didn't say anything back then because Amelia would've been mad at her forever if she did.

"Are you even listening?" asked Amelia.

She didn't reply. She didn't even look at Amelia. She was really pissed but she didn't like fighting with her. After several arguments, she realised that not talking to her for some time helps both of them calm down. Given that Amelia would stop criticising her for a goddamn second.

"Yeah, I thought so" Amelia sighed. "Anyway, where do you think I should get my guild mark? And where do you want it?"

"Where do people usually have these?" she asked.

"Anywhere they want, I guess" wondered Amelia. "But I've seen many people having it on their shoulders."

Thinking about it, Zoe remembered both Sting and Rogue having them there. Should she get it there as well? That seemed the easiest choice. But her shoulder wasn't really wide. So if all guild marks have the same sizes, there is no way there would be enough surface on her shoulder for a guild mark. How about her chest, then? Well, that might be cool for a guy, but is it appropriate for a girl? She didn't want it on her back. How the hell was she supposed to see it, then? Wait, is she supposed to be able to see it?

"Wow. Did I just break you with that question?" asked Amelia sarcastically.

Arriving to the guild, they sat to the table where Frosch was asking Rogue's help to choose what colour crayon should be used next in the colouring book the exceed was playing with. Apparently, Sting and Yukino were the ones handling the acceptance of new members but none of them were there at the moment. So Amelia decided that they'll just wait for them there. Seeing Amelia and Zoe joining their table, Frosch got really happy that they might also play with them.

"Can you help Fro complete the picture?" Frosch asked them with expectant eyes.

"Maybe a bit later, Fro" said Amelia, settling down with the samples in her lap. "I have to go over this sample book, first, then check the mails."

Zoe could see how sad that made poor Frosch who then looked at Zoe, waiting for her answer. Looking down at the half-finished page, with colours all over the place, out of the lines, mixing together where they shouldn't be mixed, she smiled back at the exceed.

"Have you decided what colour the ground will be?" she asked as she sat down, putting their mails aside, placing her right elbow on the table.

"No" the exceed exclaimed happily, grabbing all the crayons possible and sitting down on the table in front of Zoe. "Fro asked Rogue to help but he couldn't decide."

"Is it grass?" she asked.

Frosch was looking around the table, frowning, before speaking.

"Fro doesn't have green" Frosch said sadly.

"Then how about marshmallows?" Zoe asked, going through the colours, grabbing a light pink crayon in her left hand.

"Fro likes marshmallows. Can we make marshmallow grass?" asked Frosch doubtfully.

"Why not" she replied simply.

"But Fro's never seen marshmallow coloured grass" Fro said, shaking their head in confusion.

"Well, it's your colouring book. So you can colour it the way you want to."

"Fro wants marshmallow grass" Frosch exclaimed in joy, grabbing the pink crayon from Zoe's hand. "What colour your grass will be?"

"Mine?" she replied, thinking. "How about some golden grass?"

"Hmm… That doesn't sound tasty" said Frosch seriously.

"Tasty?"

"Fro likes eating marshmallows. So the grass will be marshmallows. What does Zoe like eating?" Frosch asked, already working on colouring the grass.

"Let's have some strawberry grass, then" she mumbled, reaching for a red crayon.

"Strawberry is good" mumbled Frosch in response, smiling.

Rogue just looked at the two of them talking, smiling through the whole ordeal. He didn't took Zoe for the 'playing-with-kids-like-it-is-the-most-natural-thing-ever' type, but this was a pleasant surprise. Yes, he thought of Frosh like a little kid and honestly, he thought of all the exceeds he's met so far as little kids. Frosch was having so much fun playing but Rogue couldn't pinpoint any specific emotion on Zoe's face. Also, Amelia seemed unusually quiet. Looking at her, Rogue could tell she was really angry, trying to concentrate on the samples she was examining.

"Did you guys have a fight?" he asked simply.

"Having a fight requires two people actually talking and paying attention to each other" Amelia grumbled, not even looking up at him or Zoe.

Looking at her exceed from the corner of her eyes, Zoe didn't say anything. She knew that at this point, there was no way she could say anything that could make the situation any better. She wasn't really happy about Rogue bringing up this topic because it just made Amelia lament on her issues for a longer time.

"Let's just say, there are things we don't agree on at the moment" said Amelia, sighing, trying to make the situation less awkward for poor Rogue.

"Fro finished the grass" Fro said happily, having no idea what was happening around.

"Good job, Frosch" said Zoe kindly. "It looks really good."

"Now Fro wants to make something yellow."

"The sun could be yellow" replied Amelia, looking up from the book.

"But there is no sun here" said Frosch scanning the picture.

"Then you should make one" said Zoe. "The sky is not coloured yet. You can draw a sun anywhere you want."

Seeing Zoe like this reminded Amelia of the times when they were playing together. She really enjoyed those times but nowadays she hasn't really thought of just sitting down and playing something. Zoe was just like this back then, teaching her through simple things, teaching her not to be stopped by some imaginary boundaries, not to be afraid to do things differently. That it was not other people's expectations she had to meet. But lately they had other, more important things to do then just enjoying themselves.

"Say, Fro" she said, closing the sample book. "Can I also help you guys?"

Just as she was about to join them, they heard a loud crash from outside. A couple of seconds later Lector came flying through the main door, telling them about the commotion currently happening in the city.

~v~

While Yukino was working on evacuating the western part of the city, Sting was trying to hold back the attacking monster until the scene was clear or other Sabertooth members arrived to help him and Yukino out.

That thing harassing the townspeople was over 20 meters long, it was made out of some thick completely black liquid and had around 16-20 "arms". Well, seemingly those were arms, with creepy long boneless fingers, but this thing was using most of them as legs, making them stretch and bend in painfully unnatural angles. Though, it didn't seem to mind it. It didn't have any facial features or even a face, but there was a large mouth in one end of its body. But it didn't have any eyes, nose or ears. So they had no idea how it could navigate around. Given that it wasn't just rampaging without any idea what was going around it.

The main task was to get the townspeople out of the way of this thing, so most Sabertooth mages worked on evacuating them. Obviously, Rogue made his way to join Sting in fighting the monster, which was the intention of everyone else after finishing directing the civilians to a safer location. Finishing with clearing their area, Zoe and Amelia were approaching the twin dragon slayer's location, Zoe constantly watching the monster. It seemed that it could recover from any kind of injury in mere seconds and the attacks just made it angrier and more unpredictable, screaming, flapping its arms around awkwardly and taking a bit of one of the nearest buildings, liquefying the remains of said building. Also, it suddenly just decided to spawn some kinds of little minions out of its own body. _If one creepy big arm-centipede monster wouldn't be enough, now there were dozens of its smaller versions roaming the city streets_ , Zoe thought, shivers running down her spine. As they were getting closer, Zoe noticed something weird about that thing. Something eerily familiar.

"Hey, Am" said Zoe as she stopped, looking at her exceed. "Remember that mission in those caverns in North Fiore?"

"What?" she asked instantly, then started thinking back, furrowing her brows.

"Look at its stomach" Zoe said, pointing to show her exceed something white on the completely black surface of the monster's skin.

"No way" Amelia breathed out. "Wait… But this one has some kind of acidic saliva. It just melted a whole building."

"Just go and tell Sting and Rogue that they have to destroy that mask" Zoe said, already running to the opposite direction the others were.

Amelia remembered the mission Zoe was referring to. They were hired to find some geologists in a cavern system and found a strange altar with a bunch of creepy masks. Some of them were missing and as it turned out, those idiot geologists put them on just to scare each other. And as a result, some kind of thick, protective material surrounded their bodies and controlling their every movements, making them unable to take the masks off. Not just them, but it seemed impossible to take them off from the outside as well. So back then Zoe had to get inside those disgusting things to get the trapped men out of those shells. Now, getting inside this thing was no option, unless they wanted to get their skin burned off, that is. But Amelia had no idea how they were supposed to destroy the mask without hurting the person inside. Flying to the twin dragon slayers, she was thinking really hard where on earth Zoe was going. Arriving to the scene, she briefly explained them what the situation was and how they could defeat this thing.

"So we should make it expose its most vulnerable part…" started asking Rogue, avoiding a hit from one of the monster's arms.

"And hit an extremely small part of its body with just enough strength to destroy that mask but not kill some random guy inside?" finished Sting.

"Yeah…" replied Amelia, realising how crazy what she just asked them to do sounded.

"Sounds fun" Rogue replied with an excited half-smile.

"Where's Zoe?" asked Sting, kicking one of the smaller ones in the face, focusing back on the task at hand.

"No clue" Amelia replied. "But I'm sure she's planning something stupid. I'll go and look for her."

Flying up to scan the area, she already saw her approaching the scene, running on the top of the houses. Landing on the nearest roof, Amelia was ready to lecture her about this non-talking, disappearing in the middle of a fight behaviour. Looking at her more closely, Amelia saw that she was covered in some disgusting looking thing. Already smelling that awful smell Zoe was giving off, Amelia looked at her wide-eyed.

"Don't tell me it's…"

"Yeah" Zoe said as she got there, breathing heavily from all the running. "Unicol slime."

"You can't be serious" Amelia said angrily.

"Sorry, but I don't think any of us could measure and limit their power to kill only this thing" she said, motioning to the big black mass in front of them. "I have to get inside and protect that guy in there."

"No, you don't" snapped Amelia.

"You have any better ideas?" Zoe asked the exceed. "The slime will protect me from the acid, anyway."

"Even if it neutralises the acid, a massive amount of heat will be released" Amelia argued. "It'll still hurt you."

"Still better than the acid melting my skin" Zoe replied.

"Is it?" shouted Amelia.

"Only its mouth is covered in acid. The other body fluids seem like simple goo. It'll be fine when I get over the first part" Zoe explained as she created some protective googles around her eyes.

"In theory" Amelia murmured.

"Right" Zoe replied honestly.

Amelia knew it was a really bad idea but honestly, the chances of everyone getting out of this alive were rather slim. And this stupid plan seemed like the best option. And of course it involved Zoe getting hurt. She hated how Zoe always put the success of the mission before her own safety and well-being. Still, she knew that if Zoe didn't do this, this monster will do a lot of damage to the city and hurt everyone around.

"How long can you hold your breath?" she asked finally.

Grinning like an idiot, Zoe looked at the huge figure, calculating.

"After I'm inside, give me two minutes to find him. Then they have one minute to attack, at most. I don't think I can last longer than 3 minutes" she said, creating several fist-sized crystal balls, ready to launch at the monster. "So tell them not to hold back."

With a heavy heart, Amelia turned around to get back to the boys. Looking at her from the corner of her eyes, Zoe felt like she should say something trying to cheer her partner up. Offer to take her shopping after this is over? Or tell her she can choose whatever wallpaper for their living room she wants?

"Amelia" said Zoe, turning her head toward her exceed as she stopped on her way. "I know you can handle this."

"Of course I can" she whispered with teary eyes, not looking back at Zoe, before she flew down to talk to Sting and Rogue.

On her way down, she saw that Minerva, Orga and the two exceeds already arrived there and they were talking to the dragon slayers while evading the incoming attacks.

"And just how are we supposed to know how much strength is needed to do that?" asked Orga doubtfully.

"Not really sure…" mused Rogue.

"Change of plans" shouted Amelia, landing next to them.

Meanwhile, looking up, they saw several small crystal balls crashing on the thing's upper half, making it scream in annoyance, making its way toward the building Amelia just came from. Those were obviously not strong enough to make even a scratch on it but they were enough make it divert its attention to Zoe. Crawling closer to the building, it smacked one of its palms on the rooftop Zoe was standing on.

"What the hell is she doing?" asked Minerva, outraged, as they watched Zoe running up on the monster's arm and jumping right into its mouth as it continued screaming.

"You can't be serious…" Sting breathed out.

"Rogue, Sting, in two minutes from now, you'll have exactly one minute to destroy that mask" Amelia started explaining her plan to the stunned mages. "Minerva, Orga, we'll need your help to clear the way for them, eliminating all the minions and everything that's in their way."

"Leave it to us" Minerva replied.

"You guys come with me" said Amelia to Lector and Frosch. "We have to fly up there and make this thing as angry as possible. It has to pay attention to us and not what's happening below."

"Wait, what about Zoe?" asked Rogue.

"Don't worry about her, and attack in one minute" said Amelia, ready to fly up, looking at the twin dragon slayers with a serious face. "And don't hold back."

~v~

First, it was just simply disgusting and slimy. Then as the slimes mixed together, it was hot. Really hot. Just like during their previous encounter, being inside of this monster was like swimming in thick, completely black mud. The lack of any kind of light or colour change was extremely disturbing and she already lost any sense of direction she had. She had to act fast before she either got lost in this mess or she ran out of breath. She could feel the presence of the person inside, so she made her way to the source of this presence. She didn't saw the guy but she felt like she was getting closer. Getting through the thick goo was much harder than it was last time. She felt that this thing was putting up a fight, that it didn't want to let her get to the person it was "protecting".

She saw nothing. Even though it felt like he was right in front of her, she couldn't see him. Reaching out around herself, after a few more seconds she found who she was looking for. Touching the body, she felt that she was holding one of the arms. Pulling herself closer, she felt that she was clinging to the back of the body. Even though he was right in front of her, she still couldn't see a thing.

 _Crystal Dragon's Diamond Shield_ she murmurred as she hugged the guy from behind, making a full-body shield for both of them to withstand the incoming attack. Well, at least she hoped it will protect them. Maybe she shouldn't have told Amelia that Sting and Rogue shouldn't hold themselves back. She'd never actually seen them fighting, but they were dragons slayers. Third generation ones, as she'd heard. So each of them were probably much stronger than she was and now both of them were about to hit her. _This wasn't among my wisest decisions,_ she thought. She wasn't sure how much time had passed since she got inside but she was running out of breath. Her fingers and toes were tingling, that uncomfortable feeling slowly creeping up on her arms and legs. The back of her head already hurt.

 _Come on, guys_ she thought as she tried to hold her breath for a little bit longer. It felt like her lung was burning up, her chest was heavy and she felt the pressure inside becoming unbearable. Her temples started throbbing, she felt dizzy, and numbness started taking over her mind.

"White Shadow Dragon's Rough Silk" she heard the two dragon slayers saying in unison.

Closing her eyes, she focused on all her power on strengthening and recovering the shield, so it could withstand the incoming attacks. She felt direct hits from several powerful magic beams but she noticed that these were not enough to break the shield. They were holding back, she was sure of that. Still, if she wasn't there, this guy would've probably died from the first hit. She could already feel the surrounding slime liquefying, and slowly streaming down her body. Way too slowly for her liking. She didn't really have time for this now but she couldn't think of any way she could get out of here faster. Suddenly she felt two pairs of hands grabbing her by the arms and pulling her backward.

"… her out of there" she heard Amelia shouting.

Opening her eyes, she saw light, so she finally let out all the unwanted air from her lungs and started coughing. She saw the exceeds flying toward them followed by Minerva and Orga, and the other two dragon slayers standing beside her, still holding her up by the arms.

"Are you alright?" asked Sting with a concerned voice.

"Yeah. Just need a minute" Zoe replied, still coughing from holding her breath back for way too long. "Thank you, guys."

"That's Sabertooth for you" cheered Lector.

They laid the unconscious guy, who was seemingly unharmed, down on the ground next to them. They all needed a few seconds to catch their breaths after all of this. Some of them literally. Amelia walked next to Zoe, who was sitting next to the guy, with her arms folded, looking really grimly at Zoe.

"You did a great job, Am" Zoe said, petting Amelia's head hard.

"Shut up" she mumbled, trying to stay angry at Zoe and make her partner stop messing up her hair.

"But I thought you told them not to hold back" Zoe said with an annoying grin on her face, looking at the two dragon slayers who tried their best to look like they don't know what she was talking about.

"You are depriving a village somewhere of an idiot, you know" said Amelia, sighing.

"Right. But at least you have your very own idiot" replied Zoe, looking at Amelia.

"You mean we have our very own idiot" said Minerva with a half-smile, looking at Zoe with raised eyebrows.

"I thought we already had one" replied Orga chuckling.

"Yeah, I thought that's Sting's role" said Rogue, looking at Minerva, like Sting wasn't even there.

"Hey" shouted Sting.

"Fro thinks so, too" said Frosch happily.

"Come on, Frosch" whined Sting. "You too?"

 _So that's what a being in guild is about, huh,_ Zoe thought looking at the jokingly quarrelling Sabertooth members. Locking eyes with Amelia, she smiled at her exceed before she kindly stroked her face. In response, Amelia finally smiled at her partner, before she turned to the still arguing bunch.

"So, can we finally get our guild marks?" Amelia asked with a wide grin.


	14. Something I Can Turn To

**Chapter 14**

 **Something I Can Turn To**

"That reminds me… Have you heard the big news, yet?'

"Hah. Which one? There are so many big news lately."

"The one about that new mage in town."

"They say she's the one who brought that huge monster down last week."

"Really? I'm glad I was out of town for a while. Were there any serious casualties?"

"No. The town was evacuated pretty fast."

"That's good to hear. And she was the one saving the town?"

"Oh, I've heard that she's a dragon slayer. So she must be a really strong mage."

"Yeah, but she joined Sabertooth."

"What? No way."

"And she defeated that monster together with them."

"Really? Those evil bastards?"

"Well, they are not evil anymore, you know."

"At least that's what people say."

"I've heard that the new master seems to be a pretty nice guy. So maybe he just disciplined them or something."

"I think he's really handsome."

"Isn't he a bit too young to you?"

"Come on. That was just mean."

"Still, he used to be a douchebag, just like everyone else in that guild."

"So this dragon slayer girl is the new bad girl in town, or what?"

"She should be the same age as Doen, right? I don't want her to mess with my little cousin."

"Do you think she is dangerous to the community?"

"I don't know. But seriously, still sounds suspicious that all Sabertooth members just changed after the previous master left."

"Yeah, that big scary guy. Jiemma, was it?"

"Oh, he's Minerva's father, right?"

"Which one is she again?"

"That scary demon girl. Black hair, big boobs, evil smile."

"Haha. Now I remember. So she's the previous master's daughter, huh?"

"Well, she was."

"Was? What do you mean?"

"I don't really know much. But I've heard that this new master, the dragon slayer guy took out him to get his position."

"Wow. No way. I thought he just left after their defeat at the Grand Magic Games."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Oh, I've heard that this new master has an affair with that Minerva girl and they planned the whole thing."

"Really? I can't believe people can get away with stuff like this."

"I know, right?"

"But they say he and that other creepy guy killed their dragons as well. So this must've been an easy ride for him, huh."

"I've also heard about that before. That's just so cruel."

And Zoe thought her life was messed up. She didn't mean to be eavesdropping on some random women's chit-chat but, as usual, Amelia was spending way too much time shopping and she had nothing better to do than wait outside. She was just window-shopping and observing people around her. This was probably the first time she felt like shopping with Amelia would've been a better option. She'd heard many things around town about Sabertooth and the guild members. Apparently everybody's a jerk there. At least, according to many townspeople. They seem to either really like or really hate Sabertooth. But everybody seems to think that having Sting as a guild master is a great improvement. Not that she'd ever cared about what other people said or thought. Still, this last comment started to really bother her. Sure, they're called dragon slayers but this just didn't sound right. None of them could've been able to do that to their parents. At least not to their dragon parents…

"What's wrong?" she heard Amelia asking her in a concerned voice.

"I still hate people" she said with a grim face.

"Don't generalise" replied Amelia with a small smile. "You hate most people."

"Right" Zoe mumbled in response.

"Come on, let's go to the guild. I want to show Yuki this cute hat that I got" said Amelia in excitement. "And maybe you could tell me what happened while I was in there."

"Just heard some women gossiping" she said simply as they started walking to the guild.

She didn't feel like being at the guild right now. Honestly, she didn't feel like being among people at all but she knew it meant so much for Amelia to be a part of the guild. To belong somewhere.

"Let me guess. Was it about Sabertooth?" Amelia asked, not even waiting for the answer. "Seriously, how can people find all kinds of stuff to talk about? There's not much going on at the guild that people could talk about."

"Not now" Zoe said.

"Oh, so they just can't let go of the old stories, huh" replied Amelia with a slight annoyance in her voice.

Zoe just nodded in response. It seemed strange to her how people's comments about Sabertooth seemed to bother her more than what they thought and said about her. Maybe Amelia wasn't the only one who wanted to belong somewhere. But Amelia was different. She was so understanding and talkative, making friends was a piece of cake for her. Everyone loved her and she seemed to be able to get on well with everybody. Even with Lector. Lately they seemed to argue less, but sometimes, both of them just tried to get on the nerves of the other for no reason at all. Still, it was apparent that they considered each other friends.

"So what was it now?" Amelia asked, sighing.

Right, she was in the middle of a conversation. A conversation she really didn't want to have right now. Or ever, actually. She knew it was stupid. She knew that no dragon slayers would actually slay their dragon parents, but this story just reminded her of the Scevellas.

"They said Sting and Rogue killed their dragons" said Zoe.

"You've got to be kidding me. Unbelievable. I don't understand why people can't mind their own businesses. Why on earth are they so obsessed with talking stupid things about others?" Amelia ranted. "Who would believe such stupid thing, anyway?"

"It wouldn't be the first time" Zoe replied. "Someone killing their foster parents."

"Stop this. You didn't kill anyone, Zoe" said Amelia with a firm but caring voice.

Amelia could already see that Zoe was acting weird for a few days now. But she was always like this at this time of the year. It's been almost 10 years since that awful day. Amelia always tried her best to make her feel better when she felt down and sometimes she could make it rather bearable for her.

"Right" she mumbled. "But I couldn't save them either."

"You don't believe those women, do you?" Amelia asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Of course, not" Zoe replied simply, making Amelia smile.

"Then let's get to the guild as soon as possible. They'll surely lift your mood" said Amelia excitedly, as she started flying to the guild.

Arriving to the guild, Zoe was almost immediately asked to join a conversation with Rufus who seemed to be looking through some kinds of maps, while Amelia was happily showing off with her new hat.

"Is it just me…" started Minerva, eyeing Zoe from the mission board.

"No" said Rogue, standing with his back to Zoe and Rufus.

"Come on, you don't even know what I wanted to say" said Minerva, rolling her eyes.

"Zoe's in a pretty bad mood" he stated simply, making Minerva slightly surprised. "And I don't have to look at her to feel it."

"You guys are super weird sometimes" she replied after a few silent seconds, while looking through the current missions.

Minerva really wanted to go on a mission with Zoe one day but there wasn't anything on the board that could possibly raise her interest. And it didn't exactly seemed like the best time to take her out of town. Well, thinking about it, this may be the best time to go somewhere with her. Just as she realised this, she already started planning how to invite her to a mission she found. Unfortunately to her, that's when Sting entered the guild hall, blowing her newfound plans.

"Hey, Zoe" Sting said arriving to the table where Zoe and Rufus were discussing some geographical issues, motioning to Rogue to join them. "I'm glad you're also here. We have a situation."

"Right" she replied, looking around to find Amelia.

"What's up?" asked Rogue, folding his arms.

"Well, I just talked to Master Makarov. He was asking for our assistance" Sting started, with a half-excited grin.

"That's strange" said Minerva, who also decided to join the conversation.

"Did something happen?" asked Rogue.

"They got a mission request delivered directly to their guild. The client asked for the help of dragon slayers" Sting stopped for a second, looking at first Zoe, then Rogue. "So he called me to ask if they we got anything like this recently."

"Let me guess" interrupted Rufus. "We didn't."

"Doesn't sound suspicious at all" commented Rogue sarcastically.

"Yeah" sighed Sting. "So it asked for dragon slayers to go to an abandoned mental institution in the middle of nowhere, with no other mages accompanied, to defeat some kind of legendary creature."

"I can't believe this guy, whoever he or she is, couldn't think of a more imaginative scenario" said Amelia, hopping on the bench next to Rufus.

"Who would be stupid enough to fall for such an obvious trap?" asked Minerva, almost laughing.

"Natsu?" sighed Zoe, looking at Sting in the eye.

"Natsu" replied Sting, looking back at her with a sympathetic look.

"No way" said Rufus in disbelief, while Rogue groaned loudly.

"I can't believe this" said Minerva, facepalming herself. "Actually, now that I think about it…"

"So Wendy, Natsu and Gajeel are already on their way" said Sting. "They'll spend the night in an inn not far from the place. Aaand Master Makarov asked me if the dragon slayers of Sabertooth would join them, just in case."

"And you said…?" asked Amelia, already knowing the answer.

"Well, I couldn't possibly let them down" he replied with a wide grin.

Throwing her head back with her eyes closed, Zoe took a deep breath. This was such a bad idea. She knew it. Still, she thought that Sting made the right decision helping Fairy Tail out. She wasn't actually sure they needed their help but she could understand Master Makarov's fear of something happening to his guild's members. She talked to him and his grandson a bit during the ball. He was such a weird old man but Zoe liked him and the way he saw things. But most of the time she could feel something strange around him. Something she couldn't really explain, or understand for that matter. She had so many questions regarding this 'mission' or whatever this was but she only asked one thing, looking back at Sting.

"So when do we leave?" she asked, earning wide grins from the other dragon slayers.

~v~

After an hour of train ride and a short walk, they arrived to the inn Natsu and the others were staying. It was a rather large building but as most of it was under renovation at the moment, they had only three double rooms that were in appropriate condition to have guests stay in there. When the Sabertooth mages arrived, the Fairies were just chilling in the main hall, having drinks and snacks. Deciding to take a shower first, Zoe went up to their room with Wendy.

"I'm really sorry about this" said Wendy in a low voice as Zoe put her bag next to her bed.

"What do you mean?" Zoe asked, looking her direction from the corner of her eye.

"We didn't know that only such few rooms were vacant" she started explaining. "But us girls sharing a room seemed the most sensible and I just…"

"I'm glad it turned out like this" interrupted Zoe, looking directly at Wendy. "There are a couple of things I wanted to ask you."

"Oh… Okay" Wendy replied, perplexed. "I'll just wait for you here" she said nervously, sitting down on her bed.

"Alright. I'll be right back" Zoe replied, disappearing in the bathroom.

Wendy felt super nervous around Zoe and she didn't know why. She remembered feeling like this the first time she met Natsu and the others. But she was younger back then and not really used to meeting new people. She changed a lot since then. Fairy Tail taught her how to be more confident and open-minded. She was not the type of girl who got scared if she had to talk to someone. But there was something about Zoe that really bothered her and she didn't know what it was. She seemed like a nice person and didn't do anything to make her feel this way. Still, she was so flustered around her. Carla also noted how weird Wendy acted when Zoe was around. First, sharing the room for this night seemed like a good idea, a way to get on better terms with her feelings toward Zoe. But when Sabertooth arrived, she started doubting it. And now she wanted to ask her questions. Wendy was so lost in her thoughts she didn't even notice when the shower turned off. Hearing the bathroom door unlock, she braced herself for the upcoming awkwardness. As Zoe opened the door, a nice comforting smell filled Wendy's nose, putting her at ease as Zoe looked at her with a small smile.

"So…" Zoe started, sitting next to Wendy. "How did you join Fairy Tail?"

~v~

The silent rustling of the bedsheets woke Sting up. First, he thought that Lector must've had a bad dream and wanted to crawl to his side for comfort. No, that's not right. It was someone taller than Lector. In his sleepy haze, he thought maybe Rogue wanted something from him. In the middle of the night. In his bed. He could feel two knees settling on the sides of his hip and the mattress sink a bit from the pressure of someone's hands above his shoulders. Well, now he really hoped it wasn't Rogue in his bed. But this just raised more question in his still sleepy mind. He thought he should be fighting back now or at least trying to defend himself or something. Not that he felt being threatened or anything, but doing something in a situation like this seemed like the sensible option. But nothing really made any sense at that moment, so after waiting a few seconds for something to happen, he finally opened his eyes.

"Zo-Zoe?" he breathed out in a low voice, staring at her with wide eyes. "What's hap…"

He was suddenly silenced by Zoe's right index finger on his lips. She slowly lowered her head, placing her lips on her finger. Making a shushing sound as she motioned with her head to the direction of Rogue's bed, she just looked right into Sting's eyes the whole time. Sting could feel her breath on his mouth and his heart started beating hard in his chest. It was like all the blood was pumped directly to his head, clouding his thoughts. He started feeling unbelievably hot, unable to breathe properly. He was completely paralysed in his surprise, not even moving his eyes to the direction she motioned to. Taking her finger off of his lips, she leaned on her left arm as she lowered her head to Sting's ear before she spoke with an alluring tone.

"We don't want to wake him up, do we?" she whispered as she tenderly stroked his hair and ear with her right hand.

Gulping, Sting shook his head, slow, trying to make sense of this weird situation. He could feel her settling on his lap, drawing her upper body closer to his. A hint of disbelief and obscurity flashed through his mind. Not that this was an unpleasant experience but not something he'd expect in a million years to happen. At least not at this time and place.

"Is…" he whispered as he tried collecting his thoughts. "Um…Are you okay?" he asked, mentally face-palming himself for the dumb question.

He could hear a soft chuckle from Zoe as she started moving her head down by his neck, careful, not to make any actual contact, but close enough that Sting could feel her breath, tickling his skin, sending an unfamiliar tingling sensation through his whole body.

"Sure" she replied, planting a small kiss on the base of his neck. "Are you?"

Clutching the blanket, Sting closed his eyes, hoping it would help him focus on his thoughts. This was all so sudden and weird and everything Sting wanted. Well, that's not exactly true. He didn't want her to just throw herself at him. He wanted to fight for her. To earn her trust and love and everything she was willing to give him. He didn't want to get her on a silver plate with a nice little ribbon on top. But this sure felt like that was currently happening and it didn't feel right. He didn't want her like this and Sting knew that she was not someone who would act like this. But apparently this person in Sting's bed didn't know this. Or that even though Zoe was ambidextrous, she actually used her left hand more often. And there's no way she could keep eye-contact with people for such a long time. Not without looking away for at least a couple of seconds at a time. Also, Sting's probably never heard Zoe saying 'sure'. She had this strange habit to reply with 'right' or 'alright' which sounded kind of weird to Sting sometimes.

"Who're you?" he asked in a monotone voice.

Just as he did so, he heard a loud explosion-like noise from the hallway as flames enveloped part of their room.

~v~

Zoe couldn't sleep. Not that it was anything new for her but today's been a long day and tomorrow they had to fight who knows what kind of monster or creature and she's just laying in her bed, watching the shadows on the ceiling dance around. At least they're having fun, huh. She could hear Wendy's voice, murmuring something in her sleep, and some weird bird chirping outside. It was annoying. Turning to her side, she looked at Amelia's sleeping figure. Her heartbeat seemed faster than usual. Probably dreaming about something weird. Last night she also had a strange dream. She didn't remember every detail but she knew it was about that time when they were on a mission with Amelia and they met Sting and Rogue. Well, they didn't actually meet. It was shortly after the first time they met and honestly, Zoe was not ready to meet them again so soon.

The boys were on a mission connected to the one they were doing. Nothing spectacular, just some monsters had to be eliminated and they did a great job doing so. Zoe and Amelia just watched as Sting and Rogue took them down one by one. It was apparent that they were used to working together. Fighting together. But the girls just observed and waited. Eliminating the monsters would be only a part of their job. They were actually hired to destroy the source that was making these monsters act evil and hostile but right now they had no clue what it was. First, Zoe felt pretty bad for using the dragon slayer duo as bait to find it but she had a feeling that nothing bad will happen. She felt they could take care of themselves and deal with whatever is up ahead. But they were there with Am if anything happened to them, just in case. However, in her dream, after defeating the monsters, the boys encountered an old lady who asked them to help her with her grocery bags, which were full of frogs constantly trying to get out of said bags. When she told Amelia about it in the morning, she found it quite funny, imagining the boys trying to contain the frogs.

Suddenly, she heard murmuring voices from the next room and someone falling over some furniture. Sitting up, she looked over Wendy's bed who was still sleeping soundly. She heard someone talking again. Sting, talking. Another crash. She then heard loud footsteps and the Sabertooth boys' room door being thrown open.

Jumping out of bed, she hopped to the door to check what's going on. Opening it, she saw Sting on the hallway, half naked, breathing heavily while looking back to his room.

"Sting?" she semi-whispered, making him slowly turn his head her direction.

He stared at her with unfocused eyes, confused. Looking around the hallway, Zoe stepped out of the room, making Sting back away until his back reached the wall. She stopped, furrowing her brows.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a concerned voice.

He didn't answer. He just looked at her with the same expression. First, he just looked her in the eye then all over her body, like he was looking for something on her. Knowing, that the only thing he could look at was a simple shirt and her long cat-patterned pyjama pants, she could feel embarrassment creeping up on her neck and face as her eyes started searching for something else to look at than the half-naked Sting. _Well, this is awkward_ , she thought. But there was something else. She felt strange but not only because of this situation. It was like she was getting light-headed and extremely sleepy. She started feeling hot and it was like the world around her was slowed down. Her eyelids felt like they weighed tons as she felt her heartbeat slowing down. With a long blink, she took a deep breath and lifted her left hand to her head. Something was wrong. Thinking about it, how come nobody but her woke up during this whole ordeal. She could hear soft whimpering from her room but she couldn't tell who it was. Quickly turning her head backward to check on the girls proved to be a terrible idea. The hallway started spinning around her and she felt gravity taking over her body as she lost her footing. She didn't know what was happening to them, yet again, but she fought really hard not to lose consciousness. She had to. But at that moment, just letting everything go and sleeping was so tempting. Just a nice short nap. It couldn't hurt anyone, right?

Feeling her head hit Sting's chest as his arms gripped her tightly to support her, she was brought back to reality by his voice calling her name.

"Hey, Zoe" Sting said, making her look at him. "It's really you, isn't it?" he asked, brushing her messy hair out of her face.

"As far as I know" she replied hesitantly, grabbing his arms as she tried to get back on her feet. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Not sure" he replied, looking around the hallway. "I just… had this strange dream. And it felt so weird. So real. But it just couldn't be real."

"What does that supposed to mean?" Zoe asked, finally standing on her own.

"I'm not sure how to describe it" Sting whined, letting Zoe go. "You were there and Rogue too. But I could tell it wasn't really you. But it looked like you. And then something attacked us and everything was on fire. And you got…" he said with a faint voice before he stopped for a second, eyes closed, head down. "I couldn't do anything. I knew it wasn't you but…" he whispered, almost sobbing as he recalled his memories.

"Sting, please, look at me" she said with a kind, low voice, placing her hands on the cheeks of the white dragon slayer.

He opened his eyes, and slowly lifted his gaze to look at Zoe. She was looking at him with so much love and confidence in her eyes that Sting thought he'll never be able to tear his eyes away from her.

"What do you see?" she asked.

"What?" he asked back, confused.

"What can you see right now?" she asked again.

"You…" he breathed out with a questioning tone.

"Me" she replied simply.

Sting stopped for a second, thinking. He was just staring at her eyes, examining it closely. He knew her eyes were extremely beautiful, but he'd never actually noticed how captivating they were. Looking up to her bangs, he realised he hadn't even seen her forehead before. He wondered why she never puts up her hair in a pony tail or wears a hair band or something. He continued moving his gaze to her cheeks, lips, neck and down to her feet when he understood what she was trying to make him realise.

"You…" he started again, biting his bottom lip as he paused. "You're you. And you're fine."

She replied only with a half-smile and a small nod, slowly bringing her hands down his neck to his shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze.

"And that's an impressive number of cats" he smiled, motioning to her pyjamas, making her laugh out loud.

Her embarrassed laugh was the most adorable thing Sting's ever seen and heard. She always looked so serious so seeing this side of her just made Sting fall for her ever harder. Though, he thought that was not actually possible.

"That's an unpleasant surprise" echoed a female voice in the hallway that was getting filled with greyish fog. "One resisting my spell, the other breaking it. I guess I should've been more careful, huh."

Just as the voice finished speaking, a little black-haired girl emerged from the fog. Knowing her luck, Zoe guessed that whoever was talking to them, she was probably something extremely creepy standing right behind her. Turning around to see the enemy, she almost jumped into Sting's arms seeing a dark-eyed little girl standing inches from her, looking up at her, smiling.

"Woooah" Zoe squeaked as she kicked the girl right on the face making her fall back a few metres.

Getting up and holding her nose, she looked at Zoe with a confused face while Sting looked at Zoe with wide eyes and a huge grin on his face.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the little girl asked.

"What did you expect me to do? You know, there's this thing called instinct" she replied, outraged. "So if a see a creepy little girl in the middle of the night, standing behind me in a dark hallway surrounded by some weird fog, saying creepy stuff like this, my instincts tell me to kick the shit out of that little bastard."


	15. I'll Be Your Compass

**Chapter 15**

 **I'll Be Your Compass**

After their encounter with the girl, murmuring something about trapping everyone until "the others" arrive, she disappeared in the fog. Checking on the others who were still sleeping, Sting and Zoe decided to look around the place. Hopefully they can find that girl and find out how to wake the others up.

"You know I was thinking about what that girl said" started Sting as they cautiously walked around the dark, unfamiliar hallways, checking if any of the few doors was open. "What kind of spell was she talking about?"

"Based on the state the rest of us are in and the things you said" started Zoe with a sigh, "I'd guess it's a sleep-spell of some kind. One that makes people trapped in their nightmares."

"How did you resist it?" he asked.

"I don't think I did" she admitted. "Usually, for such spells to work, the one it's casted on has to be asleep."

"You mean…" Sting started, unsurely. "You haven't slept yet?"

"Nope" she replied simply.

"It's like what, 3 a.m.?" he asked.

"Dunno" she mumbled, concentrating on some strange tapping noises she heard.

Looking at her more closely, she did look paler and more tired than usual. Sting was wondering why she wasn't sleeping yet but he was rather thankful that she was there for him when he woke up. Walking through the seemingly unending hallways Sting watched Zoe as she was cautiously taking each step, keeping her breath and heartbeat steady as her eyes continuously scanned the environment.

"Well, this hallway looks exactly like all the others we walked through so far, huh?" Sting asked Zoe, who seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

She totally looked like she could fall asleep at any second, so Sting thought he should just keep talking to her. Maybe it'll help her stay awake.

"I guess so" she replied after a few seconds.

"So what are we going to do after we find whoever is behind this?" he started talking to her again. "'Cause I don't think simply beating them up is going to do much. And that's more of Natsu's style, to be honest."

She was wondering how this person, girl, or whatever it actually was could deceive all of them, because she was damn sure that this place didn't look like this when they got here. And she couldn't feel the inn being enchanted or disguised when they got here. She just realised that Sting was continuously talking. Not that she minded hearing his voice but this probably wasn't the situation when he should've let that sweet voice of his be heard. The way he talked had such a nice and calming flow to it. She could've listened to him all day, every day. But as they reached the next door, she heard that tapping again. Turning to Sting, she put her left hand on his chest and she covered his mouth with her right hand, stopping him almost directly in front of the door, looking directly into his eyes the whole time.

For a split second, Sting thought he might be still asleep. Her skin was so soft and her touch was so gentle. He just wanted to push her to the nearest wall, take that small petite hand of hers and kiss each digit of her fingers. To trace the lines and mounts of her palm with his tongue… _Alright Sting, just calm yourself_ , he thought as he tried to bring his mind back to reality. He had no idea where these sudden thoughts just came from but he was sure as hell that his eyes were betraying him right now.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered, not even bothering to comment on the lust-filled eyes Sting was looking at her with.

He didn't. He had no idea what she was talking about.

"Something's tapping in there" she explained quietly, slowly lowering her hands.

Now that she mentioned it, he could definitely hear something. Slowly looking away from her, he started concentrating on the noise coming from the room.

"I'll go check it. You stay in the doorway and cover me" she said stepping away from him. "Alright?"

He nodded immediately. Seeing such a dominant side of her was a nice surprise. At least she can think straight, because Sting was still kind of lost in his thoughts. But he needed to focus right now. As she opened the door and stepped inside, Sting stayed in the doorway, checking if anything happens in the hallway.

"Wow" Zoe exhaled, looking around the room.

There were tiny brownish-greyish animal footsteps all over the place. The furniture, the walls, even the freaking ceiling and the chandelier… Everything was covered in them.

"What's with the crazy weasel party in here?" she asked, making Sting turn to her with a confused grin on his face.

"What are you taking about?" he asked, smiling.

"It's a long story" she started, also smiling, as she started exploring the room. "But there was a mission when I had to capture a bunch of weasels who escaped from a small pet shop in…"

As she turned around to look at Sting, she realised he was gone. Going out of the room to check on him, she couldn't find him anywhere.

"Come on, now" she whined, as she continued walking down the empty hallways.

~v~

After the other dragon slayers woke up, they decided to go look for Sting and Zoe. Natsu and Rogue headed down one of the hallways and Gajeel joined with Wendy to find them. As they were exploring, they saw all kinds of light flashing at the end the hallway.

"Someone's having fun in there" commented Gajeel sarcastically.

"Do you think Zoe-chan and Sting-kun are there?" asked Wendy unsurely.

"There's only one way to find out. Gihihi" Gajeel answered with an enthusiastic laugh.

Kicking down the door, Gajeel entered the room first. There was a big desk with all kinds of chemicals, laboratory flasks and stuff Gajeel had never seen before. Behind the desk, a guy in a lab coat was mumbling something, not even paying attention to the intruders.

"Finally, guests" said a female voice from one of the corners.

As he looked to the direction the voice came from, he saw a dark haired woman sitting in a big armchair. She had a leather jacket and leather pants on. As Wendy also walked to the room, both the dragon slayers and the woman got surrounded by black flames before she started speaking.

"Let's find a better place for this, shall we" she grinned as they got transported to the top of the building.

Looking at the woman closely, Gajeel saw that something was really strange about her. Her eyes seemed to be further apart than they should've been. And they looked much bigger than normal eyes do.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.

"Just call me Cécile" the woman replied. "Let's have some fun, shall we."

Grinning at the dragon slayers, she showed her numerous jagged teeth, lined up in perfect rows from one side of her face to the other.

Some black hole started opening in the palm of her hand, and in a blink of an eye, she was standing behind Gajeel, almost hitting him. With Wendy's sudden speed enhancement, he was just able to get away from her hitting him. As she missed, just a bunch of bricks got hit with that weird dark portal, all of which just disappeared the second they got in contact with the portal.

"Once you're in, there's no coming back" she purred, as she suddenly appeared right in front of Gajeel, kicking him on the face.

From a sudden hard hit, he stumbled back and slipped on the edge of the bricks. The woman standing in front of her was seemingly ready to finish him off, but was suddenly hit on the face with a large crystal hobby horse, as Zoe stepped between them. The woman fell back, landing on her back. Releasing her magic, Zoe turned immediately to Gajeel, quickly grabbing his arm before he could fall off the building.

"You're late, kid" Gajeel said, grabbing Zoe's other hand.

"Shut up" she mumbled, helping him up, making him laugh.

"Are you alright?" asked Wendy running toward them.

The woman just sat there a few metres away from them, staring at her newly arrived prey. As Zoe helped Gajeel back on top of the roof, she quickly looked over both him and Wendy to see if they were alright.

"Thanks" Gajeel said, grinning. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Well… Here and there… Umm, have you guys seen Sting around?" Zoe asked.

"Nah" replied Gajeel. "We thought he's with you."

"He was" Zoe replied. "But we got separated somehow…"

"I hope you enjoyed your little reunion" they heard Cécile saying, as she staggered to her feet. "But it's time for me to finish you."

"Be careful" said Gajeel, standing in front, with his back to Zoe and Wendy. "She has some weird-ass magic. She can transport stuff and disappear to some weird dimension or whatever."

"Are you…?" Zoe started asking, looking at the woman in awe. "Are you a siren?"

With an ear-shattering shriek, the woman ripped her top off as a pair of huge bat like wings emerged from her back along with a long tail ending in a thick club. Her boots were shredded to pieces as her long claws from her toes and heels penetrated the fabric.

"What is going on?" asked Wendy in a scared tone.

"Wendy, you have to take Gajeel out of here, right now" Zoe said firmly, looking at Wendy.

"Me?" Wendy asked.

"What are you talking about, kid?" asked Gajeel, outraged. "I ain't gonna leave you here."

"I said get the fuck out of here" Zoe growled dominantly, as magic circles started forming around her hands. "It's a siren. Men are its main prey."

"Come on, Gajeel-kun" Wendy said as she grabbed his arm, running toward a hole on the roof to get to the floor below them.

As the creature started to open a portal, she immediately lunged at Wendy and Gajeel, not even bothering with Zoe. Knowing this is her perfect chance, her instincts kicked in. _Protect._

Seeing that the creature was running toward them, Gajeel already started forming a large blade out of his hands when he saw Zoe creating an almost invisible crystal wall between them and the enemy, to make sure she's the one making contact with it. Seeing the previous effects of anything getting in contact with the portals, he started shouting at Zoe to stop but she didn't seem to care. As the monster ran right into the wall Zoe created, the portal opened up right next to its hand, creating the perfect opportunity for Zoe to push that damn thing inside. Apparently, she was thinking exactly the same thing, as running up on a pile of debris to get some momentum, she just jumped at the creature, punching it in the chest so hard that it stumbled right into the portal, shrieking in pain as it got slowly swallowed by the darkness inside. With one last attempt to cause as much harm as possible, shooting its tail out, it grabbed Zoe by the neck, pulling her toward the portal.

"Zoe" shouted Wendy and Gajeel almost simultaneously, being unable to get to her due to the wall she refused to release.

"Go" she managed to squeeze out the word before she also started screaming in agony as the portal swallowed her.

After the pain was gone, there was nothing but darkness. She felt like she was slowly floating into the depth of this nothingness.

"Well, this is unfortunate" she heard the creature say. "Now we're stuck here for an eternity."

She didn't care what this thing said, she didn't have time for this shit. She's got stuff to do. She can't just stay here and do nothing for… well, forever.

"How did you know what I am?" the thing asked curiously.

"I've read about your kind a long time ago" she said as she started looking for a way out, which only consisted of trying to stop this annoying floating motion and swimming backwards to where she regained her consciousness.

"You read about me?" it asked, with a slight happiness in its voice.

"About ancient mythical creatures" she replied calmly. "It seems everything was pretty accurate."

"That's nice. Very nice" it mumbled. "I kinda like you, you know."

"How can we get out of here?" Zoe asked, searching for a faint light or leak of magic power somewhere. "Is there an exit?"

"There's no portal open. There's no escape" it stated.

"No. No… I have to get back" she said, her eyes sparkling with determination.

She could feel the creature sneaking its arms around her waist, its chin resting on her shoulder.

"Or you could just stay with me" it purred in a sweet innocent voice. "I'm not as bad as you think."

"You don't understand" she whispered, collecting all her magic power and concentrating on finding the place the previous portal was opened. "I have to get back to him."

The creature let go of her, looking at her in awe. It could see her whole body emanating a wild radiant power, lighting up the darkness-filled dimension.

"Crystal Dragon's Diamond Fist" she said as she focused to hit the spot she suspected the latest portal was at. "Maybe you should be the one staying with me for now, huh" she said smiling.

It could see Zoe punching in the air and keeping her fist in place, focusing her remaining magic there, seemingly achieving nothing by doing so. But in a few seconds, a loud rumbling noise filled the whole dimension as the spot she hit started having small cracks on it. A bluish light was getting through the cracks as the noise got unbearably loud and as wind started blowing through it. It hurt. The noise, the air, the colours… All the colours. It'd never seen anything like that before. All the colours it could imagine blending together and the only thing shielding it from them was this girl standing in front of her, screaming from the pain. It wanted to scream as well but couldn't. No matter how everything hurt, its mind was filled with bliss and admiration toward this girl and her determination. With its remaining strength, it flapped its wings and started flying toward the exit she created. Grabbing her by her arms, it took her through the opened portal. Before fainting, Zoe looked up at the creature and murmured a thank you with a small smile.

She heard a male voice speaking to her. She didn't know who it belonged to. It sounded calming and distressing at the same time but not threatening. Well, not really threatening.

"…to see what she managed to make out of you."

Too bad she wasn't in the state to concentrate on what he was talking about. Or who was he referring to.

"Show me if you're worthy of being…"

She was trying hard to open her eyes and get up, to see who this guy was but she couldn't do it. Slowly, she felt her thoughts drifting away as she slipped to the world of dreams. In her dream, she saw something she never imagined to be able to remember: a memory from her very early childhood. A memory from before she met Sapphire.

 _Walking down the river bank, she was holding someone's hand. Someone tall was walking with her, with very soft hand. She wasn't looking at the person next to her, though. She was watching the river._

" _Look, mama" she said, pointing in the river. "Fishies."_

 _She didn't get any replies. She wanted to stop and watch the various fishes in the river but she couldn't. She was dragged to somewhere but at least they were walking by the river, so it was still kind of fun for her. They slowly reached a bridge where they stopped._

" _Mama, can we watch fishies now?" she asked, trying to step closer to the side of the bridge._

" _I told you to stop calling me mama" a stern female voice said._

 _She didn't reply. She didn't understand why she can't call her mother mama. Maybe she wanted to be called mum. Or mummy. Maybe she'll ask her later. But right now she just wanted to see some pretty fishies. She really liked animals, probably more than she liked the other kids and adults she met. Animals were never mean to her. People were. She didn't really understand why, though. When she asked her mom, she just got very angry at her._

" _You shouldn't be here" she heard her mom saying, as she grabbed her by the waist and put her on the top of the bridge. "But don't worry. Soon, you'll be right where you belong."_

" _But I like being with mama" she replied, trying to look back at her._

 _But before she could turn around, she felt her mother's hands disappearing from her waist, as she felt a strong push on her back. And then there was water. Lots of water, everywhere._

~v~

"Dammit" Sting mumbled angrily as he stepped in some sticky blue liquid.

He was completely out of his mind. He was supposed to protect her. To stay around and cover her. And he turned around for a single second and got teleported to who knows where. Moreover, since he lost Zoe, he was wandering around not finding anything or anyone, beside spider webs and some disgusting smelling goo. He felt like he could tear this whole place to pieces but that would just draw way too much attention to his location. But what if something happened to her? What if that creepy little shitbag got her? She hasn't slept yet. What if she was just knocked out and she got trapped in a nightmarish situation just like he was. She was there for him when he needed and where will he be when she's in need? As frustration took over him, he just punched the closest wall, breaking through the thick bricks.

"Whoa" he heard from the other side of the wall he just broke. "Look, we found him" Natsu said happily, kicking the rest of the bricks down.

"Natsu…" Sting looked at him in shock. "Rogue… You guys are awake?"

"Yeah. Everyone woke up already" Rogue started.

"Come in here" said Natsu, motioning with his hands toward the room they were in. "Check this out."

"What the hell were you doing there, punching the wall like an idiot…" Rogue commented.

"Have you seen Zoe?" Sting asked, looking at both Natsu and Rogue as he entered the room.

"No" said Rogue. "But Wendy and Gajeel might've found her by now. What happened to you guys?"

"I had this shit nightmare and when I woke up she was there. And we met a girl. Creepy little shit. She said something about others who will get here" Sting rambled, scratching the back of his head. "Then we started looking around this place and she was just gone in a second."

"That must have been Cécile's doing" a small voice said from the other end of the room.

Now, looking around, Sting understood why Natsu wanted him to come here. The room was huge, filled with all kinds of artefacts and seemingly expensive decors. Expensive and dangerous, as most of them seemed to be containers of some sorts or had magic seals on. At the end of the room, two stairways led to an upper floor, with the little girl standing on the top of the stairs along with a strange guy with huge glasses and a lab-coat on.

"By creepy little shit, you meant her, right?" asked Rogue, referring to the young girl talking to them.

"Yeah" Sting grumbled.

"Your spell wasn't very effective" said the guy next to the girl.

"You should shut your mouth, unless you want a painful and early death" the girl said, clearly irritated by her partner. "Now what should I do with you guys? The main attraction is not ready yet."

"Maybe we can just beat you guys up till then" laughed Natsu, as flames started covering his fists.

"I think I'll just stay up here" said the guy on the top of the stairs.

"Hmph" hummed the little girl as she floated down the stairs, magic circles surrounding her hands. "Come forth, creatures of the night."

Some of the urns and chests started shaking, then breaking as all kinds of small flying and crawling creatures were released.

"I summon you, warriors of the past" she continued.

The metal armours on the sides of the room started rattling, as they stepped off of their pedestals and started marching toward the dragon slayers.

"Come and serve your master, spawns of the devil" she said, as several magic circles appeared above her and on the ground.

From that circles, dozens of ugly squeaking things, covered in greenish-brownish slime started emerging, throwing themselves at the boys.

None of these things were strong by any means, they could take them down easily. But the amount of them was annoying. They just never seemed to stop.

"Come and fight me, stop sending these annoying little guys at us" Natsu screamed in annoyance. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame" he shouted angrily, destroying a bunch of monsters attacking them.

"Are they trying to buy time for something?" asked Sting, while kicking the head of one of the armours off, which directly hit some of the small flying things.

"So some of you are not complete idiots, huh?" asked the girl.

"What did you say?" screamed Natsu, outraged, running toward the girl.

"Natsu" Rogue shouted as he grabbed Natsu by the arm, before he accidentally stepped in a hole left by one of the girl's magic circles.

"Sky Dragons's Roar" they heard Wendy, as a hurricane-like blast swept through the small flying creatures, destroying them.

"You looked like you needed some help" Gajeel grinned as he smashed one of the armours to pieces.

"It's time you got here" laughed Natsu.

"Have you met Zoe?" Sting asked, turning to Wendy and Gajeel.

"We… Umm…" Wendy started in a sad voice.

"We met this weird chick" interrupted Gajeel. "We were fighting her and then I don't know man… She wanted to get us but Zoe stepped in and they were just gone through this portal."

"Then you'll never see her again" stated the guy in the lab coat matter-of-factly as he walked down the stairs to follow the girl.

"What did you say?" growled Rogue.

"It seems your friend got caught up in Cécile's dimensional portal" he started explaining, as he took of his glasses to clean them. "Something that nothing and nobody have ever returned from. Even Cécile herself was scared of that spell."

"Who?" Natsu asked, confused.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, the whole building seemed to shake, followed by the sound of an explosion.

"Well, there's no need for you to know now" the girl commented.

"Wha… What was that?" asked Wendy.

"Don't worry about it. You won't live long after it is released" he said, as they heard rumbling and glass shattering from the end of the room these guys came in.

"What's this incredible magic power?" Rogue asked, as they all felt an intense amount of power filling the room.

"Your worst nightmare" the guy commented, as a figure could be seen slowly emerging from a cloud of smoke on the top of the stairs.

"Well, that's really rude of you to say" they heard Zoe saying, as she casually strolled to the stairs, with her hands on her hips, before she stepped on the bars and jumped down.

"My… my creation" the guy breathed out. "What have you done to it?"

"Shit" the little girl cursed, grabbing her partner. "Don't think it's over yet."

With that, she created another magic circle and disappeared along with the still shocked guy.

"Yo, kid" said Gajeel, grinning like an idiot. "Cool entrance."

"Zo-Zoe-chan" said Wendy, with teary eyes, as Gajeel patted her head.

Natsu started laughing, looking at the twin dragon slayers. Rogue was also smiling in relief but Sting just looked at her with a strange expression. Zoe looked back at Sting with a questioning look, as he stepped in front of her. He didn't say a word, but to Zoe, his eyes spoke a thousand words. Softening her expression, she tilted her head forward, looking at Sting with a small smile.

"This expression doesn't suit you at all" she said, placing her left hand on his cheeks, gently rubbing her thumb on the corner of his mouth.

With a small, embarrassed chuckle, he scratched the back of his head, as he looked at her.

"Let's go home" Zoe said, as Natsu stood next to them, enthusiastically throwing his arms on their shoulders, showing them the way back to their exceeds, and Gajeel nudging Rogue with his elbow, grinning at him and Wendy.


End file.
